#kyoani knows their viewers very well

[x0401x]

No, but… that was a really good one, actually.

I might as well let this out. A lot of people are still losing their minds over episode 12, and I’m not even gonna try to pretend this isn’t to be expected. It’s not happening only on this side of the fandom—the Japanese one was also torn about it, although I’d argue they were much quicker to understand what KyoAni was going for with it.

Y’all know me. That goddamn studio owns my soul, but I’m not joining the “KyoAni did it again (even when they actually did not)” club in this lifetime or the next. If the changes made during the adaptation ruin the intention of the original work, no matter how good the animation is, a spade is still a spade and I address it at length when people ask my opinion. But that’s not what happened this time.

And guys, hear me out: it’s not as painful as everyone is making it to be. I’m dead-serious about that. Stick with me here.

Firstly, there’s a couple of conversations going on that we need to put to sleep. One of them, the one bothering me the most, is that Reina “chose Taki’s way of doing things over Kumiko”. Or worse, that she “chose winning at the nationals over Kumiko”. The episode itself debunks this in several ways, mainly by showing that flashback of S1. If Reina had chosen Kumiko despite thinking Mayu’s performance was better, Kumiko would’ve known, and it could very well have been the end of their friendship. She would’ve been outraged. In no universe would this scenario ever make her happy. More importantly, the flashback implies that Reina wants to choose Kumiko in spite of everything. What stops her from doing so is the fact that it would mean betraying Kumiko, which is worse than not being able to play with her on national stage one last time. Reina didn’t choose Kumiko… but she did.

None of this was about victory—it truly was a matter of meritocracy. Choosing the best members doesn’t guarantee they would win at the nationals, especially given that Mayu isn’t superior to Kumiko by a wide margin. They’re almost tied. And neither was any of it a Taki vs. Kumiko thing for Reina. She’s abrasive when it comes to defending his policies, but her belief in him isn’t blind. The fandom tends to underestimate Reina a lot because of her romantic feelings and mistakes her faith for stubbornness, even though both the novels and the anime are adamant about her good judgement. It’s not that she trusts him because she’s in love with him—she’s in love with him because he is worth her trust. Then again, this had nothing to do with him. It was all about Kumiko. She was the only thing in Reina’s mind the whole time. Taki wasn’t mentioned even in passing.

The other is that Kumiko’s loss was for shock value because the novel’s outcome was too obvious and KyoAni wanted to surprise the viewers. I’m not gonna lie, this decision was definitely meant to give the anime a so-called “plus alpha” in comparison to the original, but that’s not all there is to it. The main reason is obviously to have it be more grounded and mature, not so much your usual music anime, as well as make the whole debate about fairness actually convincing. The original is not only predictable, it’s also questionable. It’s easy for something to look like Deus Ex Machina even when that’s clearly not the intention, and KyoAni didn’t want Eupho to be that anime. By extension, they shot down every suspicion that could’ve possibly been raised about Kumiko’s win in the original work.

Of course Reina would’ve recognized Kumiko’s sound, so although most readers would know that she wouldn’t choose Kumiko for any reason other than her performance, it still leaves room for doubt. The anime slaps this doubt into outer space by constructing a situation where Reina deemed Mayu’s playing as superior, although by a hair’s breadth. It effectively answers the question of “what would she have done if that was the case?”. With the author having approved of this, it’s safe to say that, yes, that’s what Reina would have done in canon as well. And it would be the right choice, which then means that her choice in the original was also undebatably the right one. That Kumiko earned her win in the novel.

This may or may not have been intended, but either way, the anime has elevated the original work’s outcome by going for that route. After all, the original was predictable, sure, but that doesn’t mean it was unrealistic. These two things are being confused and conflated with one another a lot in many comments that I’ve been seeing out there. Realism doesn’t always have to be negative. Kumiko and Mayu had equal chances of winning. That’s what the audition was all about. The novel portrays what would’ve happened if Kumiko had won, while the anime portrays what would’ve happened if she had lost. Both are valid and the existence of one further validates the other, not the contrary.

What the author wanted to show was that, although Kumiko can’t follow Reina or her more talented senpais, she’s still an excellent player, enough to perform the solo on national competitions, and she wouldn’t let this get the better of her. It also seems like there was an element of “be careful with what you wish” as one of the morals behind Mayu’s arc, where she finally accepts her true feelings through regret rather than joy. Meanwhile, what KyoAni wanted to show is that, even if Kumiko is surpassed, she’s still an exceptional leader and has the makings of a fine teacher. In a way, the anime affirms that both Kumiko and Mayu play a special role in guiding Kitauji through the final tournament. Above all, both routes assert that Reina wouldn’t lie under any circumstances and that Kumiko (as well as Mayu) would indeed accept either result with utmost grace and understanding, no matter how frustrating it might be.

Another thing that the anime elevated is Kumiko and Reina’s bond. In my honest opinion, KumiRei has become the best female relationship in animation and one of the absolute best female relationships in fiction thanks to this episode. It’s transcended friendship, transcended gay, transcended fucking everything.

Alternative endings aren’t dead and they don’t always suck. Eupho continues to be one of the most amazing slice-of-life franchises ever.

[innovativestruggles]

SouGou theories, thoughts and speculations based on canonical evidence

Alright, I know I am so epically late to the party just like I was with Haikyuu and TsukiYachi but I am here now and I am so sad that a lot of the SouGou shippers have...disappeared...

Regardless, I still want to put forward my own thoughts and speculations on these two because they have given me brainrot over the past few weeks. 

So much like the earlier post I did with TsukiYachi, this one will be similar, except I am basing everything on the anime as I have not read the light novel (tbh light novels aren’t really my thing so...). Just to reiterate, when I make any speculations and theories, they are always based on canonical evidence, and of course my own interpretation. I put forward solid evidence so people can see where I am coming from and what I am yapping on about. People are free to draw their own conclusions of what they see in canon, so just because I have a theory with evidence, it does not invalidate another person’s theory of the same evidence...if that makes sense?

Every time I watch a new anime, I always come in with a very neutral mindset. I have a fascination with relationships (hence my ship heavy blog) so I ship characters based on their level of chemistry and compatibility.

Because I am so fashionably late to the party, a lot of the speculations below have been discussed by other SouGou fans. Essentially when I read some of their posts, they pretty much validated what I saw. So I want to credit all those SouGou stans who did the hard yard first on their speculations of these two. This post may already have what was speculated, but it’s nice to have it all in one big post. I will of course add my own thoughts and interpretations as well. So, happy reading!

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST

Gou’s Relationship with Other Characters

Sousuke did not make his debut until Season 2, so for all of Season 1, the focus was on Gou and the other characters. To be honest, nothing stood out to me in terms of shipping potential with Gou in Season 1. I do not go into watching anime with the intention of shipping characters - the shipping just automatically occurs when two characters have good chemistry. So with Gou in Season 1, all I saw was a manager being incredibly supportive, friendly, strong willed and determined to see her friends through the swimming club. You may have read my other post on Free! and toxic masculinity, but I did mention in there that what I loved most about Free! was the friendship and the emotional vulnerability. Because Gou is a side character, we never get to see too much of her and how she would develop as a character outside her obsession with muscles. But as viewers, we get the gist of her sweet personality.

Kyoto Animation

Before I dive into the speculations, I want to point out something with KyoAni. For starters, this studio is known for its amazing adaptational works of manga and light novels. When it comes to anime that does not purely focus on romance, they are so so so good with romantic undertones. As much as I do enjoy romance anime, I enjoy ones with subtle undertones of romance even more. I have watched a large portion of anime from KyoAni and I can definitely come to the above conclusion. Although Free! is not a romance genre, there is very subtle light teasing of potential developments between certain characters. Like I mentioned in my Free! post on toxic masculinity, I will disregard that just because the male characters are hugging, crying and showing vulnerable emotions to each other, it does not necessarily mean that there is a romantic development. The very subtle undertones of romance I could see is mostly between Gou, Sousuke and Momo (I will explain more later). So what I am trying to point out in this paragraph is that Free! does have minute traces of romance, because based on what other anime KyoAni produced, there are similarities in how they portray romantic undertones.

SouGou Initial Meeting

The initial meeting did not particularly stand out to me until I watched more scenes and interactions between SouGou later on in the series. What I noticed was the level of admiration Gou has for Sousuke. Again, this was not apparent when I watched the initial meeting scene on its own. I had to see a culmination of scenes between them to realise.

Oh gosh just look at how happy she is seeing Sousuke. If you go back and watch this scene again, she legit just shoved Momo out the way and ran to Sousuke. Lmao poor Momo!

Also....

Momo still staring at SouGou the whole time...

Momo getting pissy lololol (and super jelly)

Gou just looking so happy staring after Sousuke...ughh my heart....

Middle School

Just something I picked up. When Rin transferred to Iwatobi during middle school, it sounded like Gou did not go with him. So she stayed behind in the same middle school together with Sousuke after Rin left. See below.

Because Gou is one year younger than Sousuke, the scene above just sounded like he stopped talking to her when he left for Tokyo when he was a first year high school student and she a third year middle school student...and then the below scene confirmed when and the reason...

In the above scene, Sousuke explained that he hurt his shoulder in the summer of his first year of high school, and then he heard from Gou that Rin was visiting Japan at the time, so I am guessing SouGou must have stopped talking to each other around that time when Sousuke injured his shoulder. The injury was most likely why he stopped talking to her because he knew the consequences...that if Rin found out through Gou... then yeah... so to him it was better to cut off contact with both siblings...omg my heart...my poor baby Sousuke...

Anyways, point is they were definitely still talking when Rin went to Iwatobi and then later Australia. So I wonder how close they were to each other...? They do sound very close...wonder if they walked to and from school together...omfg my heart hurts again...aaaahhhhhhh

Childhood Friends

This trope is so cute and I really like the whole ‘he is my brother’s best friend’ kind of thing. Because we all know how overprotective Rin is of Gou and if there is anyone who is good enough for her, Rin would definitely think it be Sousuke.

LOOK AT HOW PRECIOUS THEY ARE OMG. Love this official artwork of all three of them. And Sousuke has such a sweet gentle expression when he is looking at Gou...

Best part also is that subtle teasing of these two. Anime is always about camera work and specific panels as well, so it just looked like to me that they really wanted to emphasise this scene between SouGou. The snow, the Christmas tree, the childhood friends - all in one frame.

Indirect Moments

These are the moments that started me on the SouGou ship! 

Gou sees Sousuke at the train station right after he has been brooding about his shoulder injury

Gou sees Sousuke at the hospital

What I really really liked about these scenes is that every single time Sousuke was having a down moment, or a vulnerable moment in relation to his shoulder injury, Gou happened to be there and witness it. It may be coincidental that she always happen to be in a place and time when Sousuke wasn’t feeling great. I was initially wondering why she never approached him in the moment and then you look at Sousuke’s pissy face and that’s probably why lmao. Regardless, Gou probably knew his state of mind, and hence decided to leave him to it. The look she gave him was more out of curiosity rather than concern but because the anime never went into detail about what she was thinking at the time, it’s hard to tell. Most important thing is that Gou was there during his vulnerable moments, before anyone knew of his shoulder injury...

Jelly Momo

Ngl, I absolutely love Momo, not only because he’s a hilarious character but because Sousuke always unintentionally cockblocks him when it comes to Gou. I just find it so funny. The poor thing. And Gou just has absolutely zero interest in him....

The thing is, Momo knows that Sousuke constantly gets in the way...it has happened several times already and I think he is also beginning to realise that Gou is probably quite fond of Sousuke, hence his very vocal comment about paying attention to him. i just love it how the anime framed it like this because you know it’s a running gag going on between all three.

Also, the look on Sousuke’s face in that above scene...you can’t see it but if you go back and watch it, and it’s only a split second when Momo moves his head, it’s absolutely hilarious. He legit has a “wtf” look on his face 😂

Just going to put this above scene here where Momo gets dragged away. Poor thing. I think at this point, Gou is catching on to something with Sousuke...

After Momo bombarded Gou with his hilarious hobbies, these two just ended up alone together ❤️

Season 3′s ending credits depict a lot of parallels between characters as well as some level of competitiveness between them. So maybe it is just a coincidence here but Sousuke and Momo together probably continues to depict the hilarious running gag between them and Gou. LOL!

Gou’s Concern

No really, when Sousuke walked out and decided to swim with his shoulder injury, the concerned look on Gou’s face. This was the first time in the whole entire series (season 3 included) where Gou showed this much concern...my heart. 

When there are problems in the Iwatobi swim club related to a character, a lot of the issues and concerns revolved around the other characters helping each other (Gou would be excluded). She is just a supporting character that does not get a lot screen time. Aside from her managerial duties, we don’t see too much of her during important/significant moments for a main character - unless she is interacting with Rin in some way. So her very minimal “interactions” with Sousuke during his vulnerable moments are considered somewhat significant (even if she just saw him walking by) because they are more symbolic than anything.

Off Screen Interactions

Okay, the amount of times Sousuke talked about Gou...they clearly talk a lot off screen and whether that be through text messages, phone calls or meeting up, I believe they are a combo of all three. I have several reasons to believe that they do hang out together quite a bit. 

1. The amount of times Gou keeps bumping into Sousuke randomly (ngl the times the audience sees is probably only a fraction to what actually goes on behind the scenes) 

2. In the later episodes, they have been seen walking home together. 

3. Some of the things Sousuke said to Rin about Gou would warrant more of a face to face conversation rather than something through text message. I mean unless they talk on the phone (that would be so fucking adorable aaaaahhhhhh) 

4. In the CD drama, they have been shown to hang out just the two of them over mediocre stuff so I am sure that would have met up and talked more about other more deeper things with each other

Gou obviously confided in Sousuke how lonely she felt because her older bro was neglecting her

LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF TIMES HE TALKED ABOUT HER! That obviously indicated they do interact quite some bit off screen. Judging from the things they talked about, it sounded like she was filling him in with what’s going on in her life..and you know just every day stuff... I love it! They are so casual and so comfy with each other <33333333

Platinum Abs

Not counting the fact that I almost choked on my drink when I saw this for the first time, but I was curious to see what Gou thought of them. So I waited....and waited...and waited...and it never came, despite the fact that she was in his presence multiple times when he was looking like this....

And I came across several older posts that pointed this out and it totally validated what I felt as well. Gou, the muscle obsessive freak has not spoken a word about Sousuke’s nationally ranked swimmer’s perfect body. WILL YOU JUST LOOK AT THEM? HE’S FUCKING MASSIVE!! Like..all over....holy shit just look at those guns...like damn fine man.... anyways... so Gou, why have we not heard a single word from you about them? To her, they are probably the best of all the characters in the series ...

And my guess is... Sousuke is most likely special to her. She does not see him as merely an object of muscles (much like she does with the other characters including her own bro) but something more. And whether that is consciously or unconsciously, the outcome is still the same. Because when someone means a lot to you and if you like someone in that way, you are less likely to see them as an object of some fantasy...

The OVA

Yo not gonna leave this one out and if there is anything that really pushed this ship further, it was definitely the OVA.

Sousuke is so pedantic about what people call him (unless you are Nagisa...which he has almost no words for ...). So the only one who can add “kun” to his name is Gou <333333

I’m not going to delve too deeply into this as

1. It is self explanatory

2. A lot of people have already discussed this topic

But, overprotective Sousuke being a sweet guy and lending Gou his jacket is something out of a shojo manga. Even more shojo is that he;

1. Did it himself and not just giving the jacket to her

2. Got overly pissed off at Ai for drenching Gou

3. COULDN’T LOOK AT GOU WHEN HE GAVE HER THE JACKET....like the whole time....ksfklafkhgdshgjdsh

Sousuke isn’t very good with expressing himself, so this scene, out of his own sheer awkwardness, really played into the intimate nature of this potential ship. I’ll explain more later...

P. S. LOOK AT HOW ENORMOUS THE JACKET LOOKS ON GOU...she so schmol (and Sousuke is just massive...). Legit they look like a couple on a date...

Sunset Meeting

Ngl when I first started watching Season 3, this scene came out so unexpectedly I had to replay it just so it would process in my mind that it happened. But aside from the fact that it was framed in a shojo manga kinda way i.e. Gou running towards Sousuke, then walking together in the sunset and then talking about deep and meaningful stuff...you get the drift...I absolutely loved it how Gou was the very first person Sousuke told about his surgery’s success. Omg..swimming and the success of the surgery just meant so much to him and he was already telling Gou about it...

Everything about the particular scene was so so intimate. The scenery, the conversation, the tone of voice, the colours used......everything! Just look at how happy Gou is....

And damn they walked home together ... my heart cannot take it anymore aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Running Gag

I did notice this trend going on but it didn’t cross my mind until I read a post that it was like a thing between SouGou. Honestly it is so so cute! Gou has this excited pitched, giggle-ish, admiration-like tone every single time she calls out and runs to him. It’s so sweet. You actually never hear it ever when she talks or calls out to any other characters in the series, so Sousuke is indeed very special to her <3

Also...something about Sousuke walking alone and Gou either noticing him or running to him...

Gou and Momo’s Mistaken Date vs. Gou and Sousuke’s Mistaken Date

In Part 4 of the Free Take Your Marks movie, Rin walks by a burger shop and noticed Momo and Gou sitting together and having lunch. He mistakenly thought they were going out on a date, and before the rest of the Iwatobi team could come to the table after order their food, Rin gets a call from Sousuke telling him that he cannot find his way. So Rin dashes off to save Sousuke still with the misunderstanding. The episode is absolutely hilarious on Rin’s part.

Then in the CD drama, there is a story titled “Sousuke and Gou’s secret date.” Of course it is a case of ‘mistaken identity’ but as I stated earlier, these two would hang out with each other to discuss superficial things, so I am certain that they do hang out with each other on occasions to talk about other more deep and meaningful things as well. Considering the things Sousuke has been telling Rin about Gou, you can make an educated guess that SouGou do have their alone times quite a bit off screen.

Anyways, so this is the part where I believe Free has its subtle romantic undertones. I mentioned in my toxic masculinity post that when the male characters were being vulnerable, hugged or cried, that it does not necessarily mean they are gay, or that there would be any romantic development between the characters. You could say the same with SouGou as well, however, the difference lies in how the anime framed it, and the biggest tip that pushed from just a friendship kind of thing to a teasing of a potential romantic thing is the “secret date” part and the running gag between Gou, Sousuke and Momo. We know Momo clearly has romantic interest in Gou, and the interesting thing is...Sousuke being placed in between Gou and Momo numerous times throughout the anime to signify that there is a potential triangle going on. Does this make sense? It is the nuances as a viewer that you can pick up, and it is even more so if you can understand Japanese. I sometimes switch the subtitles off and really just watch what they say and it’s a completely different view. Hard to explain...but that is the vibe I get.

Extras

I just had to put this scene in. JUST LOOK AT GOU LOOKING AT SOUSUKE OMG. She totally loves him <3 YOU CAN’T TELL ME OTHERWISE!!!

I always love me some official artwork of these two, and disregarding the fact that there are four other guys around and Nagisa just being the little helper he is, SouGou wrestling is something I just need to have in my life <3 I just love the light subtle tease between these two. Thank you KyoAni! And them holding hands... I’m ded...

Sousuke’s Feelings

This is purely interpretation based on what I have seen so far and of course when I am writing a full post like this about SouGou, it does help piece the puzzle together a little more. Tbvh, I strongly believe that Sousuke has repressed feelings for Gou. My reasoning is quite complex. Sousuke is a bit of a difficult character. He is aloof, serious and can be standoffish. He is not good with expressing his emotions and feelings, yet he does questionable things if he thinks it is for the best for those he cares about. Obviously noticeable when he lied to Rin about his shoulder injury, and of course completely stopped talking to Rin and Gou after being injured. But he deeply cares for those around him, and will go out of his way to help, even if it is to the detriment of his own welfare. 

Sosuke hanging out with Gou and talking to her and being around her is already an aspect of his kindness, that he would do this to anyone he cares about. But what I meant about repressed feelings for Gou was more evident in the OVA, and I think that is where the slight nuances come into play. Sousuke is overprotective of Gou and he most likely sees her as a little sister, considering he grew up with her alongside his best friend. But I think when it comes down to more intimate moments i.e. giving Gou his jacket and just not being able to look at her, I think that small nuance does give a small insight into Sousuke’s feelings for Gou. It may be minute but it’s there, and the way the anime framed that scene, it evoked a host of response from the viewers. That in itself is enough for viewers to make a determination as to what Sousuke might be feeling towards Gou at the time ... and it was probably more than a platonic kind of way...

Just to let you know that Sousuke most likely would not act on these feelings because of who he is as a person. And if there is any possibility that things could go awry between him and Rin that concerns Gou, Sousuke would not put their friendship in jeopardy. So if there was ever a way that Sousuke’s repressed feelings for Gou could surface, it would be if Gou initiates.

Gou’s Feelings

If you read through this entire damn thesis so far I think you could see that Gou’s feelings for Sousuke is a lot more overt. She is so incredibly fond of Sousuke and it is just the way she behaves around him, speaks to him and looks at him. It sends a different vibe comparatively to when she interacts with any of the other male characters. Because Gou is a side character, as viewers we don’t get to see much of her, her development or her thoughts and feelings, especially in relation to Sousuke. 

Concluding Thoughts

What an incredibly long post. I didn’t realise how long it was until I scrolled back up. But really, this was so fun to write. I enjoy writing about side characters and the little hints that anime and manga give us as viewers. This is the best thing about storytelling, that is so much more than what you see before you.

The great thing about SouGou is the incredibly compatibility they have with each other. They have a lot of the common tropes found in anime that sets them up for a future pairing. I mean,, Free is not a romance genre so there wouldn’t be any emphasis placed on how one character feels about another in a romantic sense. So the anime has placed some gentle teasing in the background with its frame (usually what you see in shojo manga for example), official artworks, and CD dramas. It’s a very subtle undertone that the viewers would have to dig through and pick up out of the mass of fanservice and the storylines of the main characters. Yet this is the reason why I love KyoAni because of its numerous layers of stories and undertone!

In my opinion, if there was ever any pairing that comes out of Free, it would definitely be SouGou - it’s because the way the anime (and probably the light novel as well) set them up and emphasised on important aspects of their relationship without going into detail about it.

I gotta say, the reason why I love these two so much is because they remind me so much of TsukiYachi pairing from Haikyuu. There are parallels between the characters and I think I just enjoy shipping ones with that level of complexity and compatibility - the whole opposites attract kinda thing (and the height difference).

So what do you think? Are there any SouGou stans out there left? I’m keen to see what the 2021 Free movie will entail for these two and the potential release of Season 4 (most likely in 2022).

Fingers crossed for some excitement!

Also...I had to crop this <3

[curestardust]

Dust Watched: Violet Evergarden Movie

Genres: Romance, SoL // 1 movie (2h) // S01 (x) M01 (x)

The 2 hour long movie that serves as the true ending to “Violet Evergarden” is finally here.

✧  story  ✧

The movie mainly focuses on 2 storylines with a less important story playing out in the background in short segments throughout the movie. We start out in the future, or to the anime’s storyline the present, where we meet the granddaughter of the girl from the best episode of the show (whose mom made 50 letters to be sent to her in the future after her death). We see that the world has undergone their own industrial revolution and with phones now being available, the job of Dolls has become obsolete. After this we jump back in time sometime after the original anime’s ending. The first half of the anime is another very tragic side-character focused story where a young boy knows he is going to pass away soon and wants Violet to write letters to her family, reminiscent of the situation which the movie started out with. In the meanwhile, the possibility of Major Gilbert being alive comes to light which leads to Violet having to face the most difficult task in her life; conveying her own emotions. The movie is incredibly well paced, with the first half feeling like the very slow ascent of a roller coaster before the huge drop. Except that drop is *emotions*. Yes, I cried at one part although not the ending itself.

✧  characters  ✧

Violet’s emotional state pretty much mirrors the viewers. Her breaking down is especially soul crushing when you consider that she basically had no emotions at the very beginning of the story so seeing her *feel* just by itself can be emotional. Hodgins was also a great presence in the second half of the movie. My main problem was with our dear love interest: Gilbert. To put it simply, the dude is infuriating. He is the exact opposite of Violet; while Violet tried to come to terms with the war and worked hard to improve as a Doll and as a person, Gilbert shut himself away and outright ignored everyone and everything. In an ironic twist, he is the one who refuses to understand Violet’s worldview while Violet understands his now. I don’t like the ending of the movie because of him. It felt unearned. Not to mention this icky feeling I get when I think about how he was an adult and Violet was like 10 when they first met so her infatuation with him is almost grooming. Right, it wasn’t intentional, I think, but ughhh no. I think Violet having to give up on Gilbert and finally be free of the past would’ve been a better ending. But I’m not a die-hard romantic so what do I know.

✧  art  ✧

Well this is KyoAni we’re talking about so. It did feel to me like there were fewer dynamic shots with a lot of movement and more just stills. The close-up shots were beautiful as usual although a bit less work went into the faraway shots. But I’m going to excuse it because the shot composition was fantastic! Also, this movie was obviously made to look the best on the big screen and I bet it would’ve been amazing to watch this at the cinema.

✧  sound ✧

The OST is beautiful and emotional grand orchestra pieces which are perfect for Violet Evergarden and the down-to-earth tone of the movie. The sound design is also impeccable. Special shoutout goes out to Violet’s VA who did an *incredible* job.

✧  overview ✧

While the ending was not to my taste, the overall production quality of this movie, the pacing, the deep emotional drop near the end and seeing how much progression Violet has made since the first time we met her really sold this movie to me. (And the ending felt almost shoehorned so I can just pretend it didn’t happen, aha.)

My Rating: 9/10

[fromzerotoeuphoria]

my feelings on rinharu & makoharu

So as I said in my last post, I wanted to make a separate post adding my own commentary on this response thread made by @melancholycheer​ @chensim​ and @thenakedbloger​ to an anon who had bashed melancholycheer for shipping RinHaru. They end up saying (almost) exactly how I feel about both RinHaru and MakoHaru, and I was just applauding them along as I was reading their post!

Their reasons for not shipping MakoHaru are pretty much mine as well, and their viewpoint on how both friendships are valid are the same as mine, too. Yes, OP hates MakoHaru as a ship, but OP also respects and cares for ALL three characters, and they also respect how others may have a different ship than they do, and that’s pretty much how I view it, too (even if the ship doesn’t make sense to me) (as long as people are respectful back).

I wanted to share this convo because so many of the points made are exactly how I feel, from why RinHaru is such a dynamic ship to how I only can see MakoHaru as best friends/brothers. The things said are just 💯.

MakoHaru isn’t canon. Neither is RinHaru. Fighting about it, or acting like your ship is superior, is not only rude, but also pointless.

EXACTLY. Neither ship is canon romantically. You know what is canon? The special friendship Haru has with his best friend Makoto and the uniquely special friendship Haru has with Rin. Does he love and care for both of his friends? YES HE FREAKIN DOES.

The directors and writers purposefully give service to each pairing to attract and keep viewers and customers.

Hate to tell ya, but MakoHaru isn’t canon and it never will be. They’ve already invested too much into both ships; if they set one in stone they’d lose a lot of fans. They won’t do that. 

People need to think—there's no way the creators are going to have an entire show based on the relationship between two characters who are driven by each other and are specially connected to one another, then boldly push fan service between them just to suddenly cut off a huge portion of their fandom by officially, "canonly" pairing one side of that relationship (Haru) with a totally different character (Makoto). Same goes for the fanservice they've been pushing between the Main Character (Haru) and his best friend (Makoto)—they wouldn't do the reverse (RinHaru) and cut off the other huge portion of the fandom like that, either (at least, not while the show is still has future seasons and is profitable).

Though I believe RinHaru is the closest Haru-ship to canon, KyoAni hasn’t made any romantic ship canon yet, and as this isn’t a BL anime, I doubt they ever will.

I don’t like MakoHaru. I have tried, tbh. I’ve read essays supporting makoharu and gone into the tag and looked at fanart and it all felt so weird. I can’t see them as more than friends. They have such a precious, special friendship and making them into anything more just cheapens it for me personally. It just feels…gross. i don’t mean that in an offensive way; i just can’t ship it… I can’t see them as more than friends. I just can’t.

...but honestly just watching the series, Makoto and Haru were just friends, in my opinion. Yeah, they got fan service, but even that seemed like just what it was: fan service. It seemed out of place to me. And more than that, even the fan service didn’t convince me that there was something between them. I’m not saying there’s not; don’t get mad lol, I’m just saying that for me personally I don’t see anything.

Literally exactly how I feel about Makoto and Haru's friendship. Yes, FRIENDSHIP. Makoto cares so much about Haru in a deeply loving way—it's obvious to everyone just how much Haru means to Makoto. And those who know Haru enough can also tell that Makoto means so much to Haru (S02E11 alone is proof). Makoto is such a sweet, soft-hearted, caring guy and the friendship between him and Haru is truly something special.

But okay, in all honestly and as much as Makoto is my big-lil squish, MakoHaru seems just a bit...unbalanced, like Makoto is more concerned for Haru than Haru is concerned for him. Not that Haru doesn't care deeply for Makoto because he does—it just seems like Makoto cares more because he's very demonstrative about it while Haru's personality doesn't show his emotions or feelings often. I'm very fair with that; it doesn't mean that their friendship is in any way one-sided. They just have different personalities. But in all honestly it rather comes across like Makoto has a one-sided crush on Haru (while Haru has a reciprocated crush on Rin)—that’s where the “imbalance” comes in.

That’s a huge reason why I just don't see their relationship as anything other than a close friendship (with Makoto more than likely having a crush on Haru...OR his super caring Type 2 personality could misconstrue his rock-solid love and support for his friend as a crush. That’s very possible, too). Like honestly, there’s nothing remotely passionate about their friendship with one another, nothing that would suggest they both have deeper feelings than brotherhood for one another (again, Makoto does suggest this because boy cares so strongly, ngl it be borderline smothering—but then again he does just have a soft boi personality—but Haru definitely doesn’t suggest this, not with Makoto. With Rin, however...👀).

I mean, even Will and Jem from The Infernal Devices had a more emo-dynamic-passionate brotherhood/friendship than Makoto and Haru do, and Will and Jem were in love with the same girl, not with each other. So people trying to convince others that MakoHaru is a legitimate, canon romantic OTP endgame are just...I just cannot fathom that realistically happening.

RinHaru, on the other hand, has so much passion and rawness and depth. [...] And I know some people feel that way about MakoHaru, and that’s fine, but personally, Makoto and Haruka are just best friends, but when it comes to Rin and Haru’s relationship, there’s something more urgent and pressing and desperate.

THIS! Omg thisssss x10000. URGENT. PRESSING. DESPERATE. You feel this from not only Rin, but from Haru as well. This is HUGE: here you have a kid who’s disinterested in almost everything aside from swimming, a kid who rarely expresses his emotions and runs away from things he finds “troublesome.” He relies on Makoto to handle things for him when he doesn’t feel like bothering, and at the beginning of the anime, he couldn’t wait for time to hurry up and pass so he could become “ordinary.” And I hate to point this out, but that was Haru with Makoto in his life (again, no hate towards Makoto, it doesn’t say anything about Makoto as a character, just about Haru’s feelings towards Makoto). Yet when Rin enters into Haru’s life, the apathetic, rarely-expresses-emotions kid becomes urgent, pressing, desperate to have Rin back into his life no matter how little it is.

(this got longer than I anticipated—I could talk about Haru x Rin ‘til the stars died out, for real—so I’ll put the rest under a cut)

“Well, of course you’d say that, you bias Rin!!” you may say. But see, here's the thing: I wasn't even a big fan of Rin when I was first watching the series (except for shota!Rin because I fell in love with him instantly lol). High school-Rin annoyed me with how unnecessarily rude he was to Haru and the others, and I was Team Iwatobi for a good part of Season 1. If anything, I wanted to see Rin get all emotional about and care for the other guys. I wanted to see this red-haired jerk show emotions I knew he had deep down for my guys. But then, the more I saw the dynamics between Rina and Haru play out, the more the rawness between them and that fire when they interacted with each other drew me in. I came to care about Rin the more Haru was confronted with the feelings he had towards Rin. And when Haru bolted to find Rin after Rin failed his race in S01E12, that desperation emanating from Haru—and this is HARU we're talking about, the guy who rarely shows any emotion—made me just as desperate as Haru was for him to find Rin, to make sure Rin was okay.

The dynamic between Rin and Haru is just something totally different. It's just as one of the OPs said: urgent and pressing and desperate.

Another thing about Rin is that he was barely even in Haru's life and yet he left SUCH a huge impact on it. Rin probably spent half a semester of elementary school with Haru and the boys, yet in those few months he managed to touch something so deep in Haru that our independent, aloof and inexpressive Haru...

1) started running home from swim practice because Rin did

2) went against his own policy of only swimming free because Rin got him to

3) became so saddened that Rin moved overseas that everyone around him noticed (and it was one of the first things Kisumi mentioned when he ran into Haru in high school after all those years)

4) would fall apart when swimming freestyle in a team relay because Rin wasn't part of the team,

5) had Rin always lingering in his mind all throughout middle school,

6) said that he wanted "to swim like you too, Rin" after reading Rin's letter from Australia,

7) quit competitive swimming altogether because he thought he had hurt Rin by winning the race against him that one winter break,

8) was so rattled when Rin said that he never was going to swim with him again after Rin beat him in the freestyle race at one of the tournaments that he went into a trance-like state,

9) basically collapsed after hearing Rin say that he was quitting swimming,

10) was actually on the verge of CRYING after hearing Rin say that because Haru was heartbroken at the thought that he wouldn't ever swim with Rin again

11) said that all he wanted to do was to swim with Rin when Rei asked him what he wanted

and lots more. AND THAT WAS ALL BECAUSE OF A BOY WHO WAS IN HIS LIFE FOR LIKE THREE MONTHS MAX IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

There's no way anyone can tell me RinHaru isn't a powerful, uniquely special relationship that legitimately dances in the realm of the non-platonic. No other relationship in Free! compares to the dynamic of their friendship, to the complexity of their relationship.† They're not the closest friends—Makoto is Haru's best friend and Sousuke is Rin's—but they need each other. Are driven by each other. Are lowkey consumed by one another.

If you read my initial reaction to watching Free!, you’ll know that I knew nothing of this anime before going into it. I also actually thought I wouldn’t fall for the characters (I was too hung up on my Haikyuu!! babies), nor would even really be into it. I went into this whole thing so unbiased and knowing absolutely nothing of the anime or the characters or the ships or that there was even a fandom. I knew NOTHING, so everything I experienced was on my own and for myself. I didn't care for Rin in the beginning, but Haru's complex relationship with Rin sucked me in and was the very reason why I even binged the last 9 episodes in one night; I was so enthralled by RinHaru, and I didn't even realize it until ep12 when Haru ran after Rin like that. There's just something so special and intense about the relationship between RinHaru that it will forever be my ult OTP in the Free! universe.

I actually read a comment on a forum that touched on how Rin was in Haru's life for a fleeting moment yet left such a huge and deep mark in his life and psyche, and I was so happy someone else noticed that. I saved it somewhere, and I'll paste it below because it too sums up so well my thoughts on the dynamic relationship that is RinHaru:

RinHaru 100%...They have such a deep and real chemistry I don't even know where to begin. I could talk for hours about them, but lets keep this short and sweet. Haruka and Rin met in the last year of elementary school (roughly 12) for only (about) the last 3 months of the school year. In those 3 months they managed to create a bond so strong that Haruka never forgot about the red-haired shark-toothed boy in all the years to pass. Rin had such a strong pull on Haruka that when they met in middle school and raced against each other, Haruka quit swimming competitively just because he thought he hurt Rin. Now in high school, Haruka still wants to remember the sight Rin had showed him, and still cares about him just as deeply as his other friends. With Rin he had only been with him for a mere 3 months and managed to create such a deep bond with him, whereas with Makoto he was with him for basically his whole life. While I am in no way discrediting MH, Rinharu managed to create still as strong a bond as they did in such a short period of time. The way they admire each other and strive to be better because of each other just... // too perfect to describe. It's a beautiful dynamic, not abusive in any way as some haters call them. Their relationship focuses on growth, passion, and inspiration, always being able to light a fire in each other, always the person to spur them on and make them go just a little farther. A truly spectacular dynamic, Rinharu will always be my second favorite ship.

Modified by Baki-san, Feb 28, 2018 11:23 AM

With that being said, I honestly don’t care who you ship. Yeah, there are ships I utterly hate (*cough* Rintori *cough*), but in the end the beauty of shipping is that anyone can ship anyone. What frustrates me and pisses me off is when RinHaru—the Haru ship that’s closest to canon because their feelings for each other are actually reciprocated—is not only attempted to be discredited, but Rin is accused of all sorts of heinous things (like being abusive) just so people can fluff up their own ship. But that’s a different post; for now, this is why I ship RinHaru and they’ll forever be my Free! OTP <3

† this post was written for my original blog on July 27, 2020 before I’d watched Season 3. So, pre-drama-with-Ikuya and Hiyori’s-obsession-with-Ikuya. Those are some pretty complex relationships, too

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update 41

CLANNAD: The Movie - So to officially say farewell to CLANNAD before the start of Summer and moving on to something else, I took a look at Toei Animation’s CLANNAD movie, which came out a month before the KyoAni series premiered on TV and adapted material from the visual novel a lot more loosely to fit with it’s run time. I actually kind of like the idea of this. It reminds me of the old Babar series where Babar had his origin told but then there were also two different movies that told two different origin stories, the second of which being most faithful to the source material books. The movie itself was...alright. I’d say it’s pretty good in only the most adequate of ways - not anywhere close to greatness but not particularly horrible either. Had I watched this movie before the series, I’d probably have found it a decent animated film and appreciated the artistic value and emotions behind the moments that actually landed, even though it wouldn’t likely stay with me like A Silent Voice or Your Name. 

Problem is, I watched it after I’d watched the entire series, having ended After Story just last week. And the movie is not CLANNAD. It shares a title, a setting, a premise, and characters with CLANNAD, but the overall feel of it was completely different. The story seemed done based on a Cliff Notes version of the Nagisa Route + After Story up until the equivalent of Episode 18′s end, done in whatever way the director (the late Osamu Dezaki) and his crew felt like doing it, which ended up not being nearly as powerful as what we got in the anime series. And boy howdy does it ever let down the characters. Fuko, Kotomi, Ryou, Mei, and Yukine are all absent (save for Kotomi getting a single silent cameo early in), Tomoyo and Kyou are more minor here (especially the latter, who has been stripped of her personality entirely), Kouko Ibuki and Yusuke Yoshino get more attention for whatever reason, and Akio and Sanae display none of the more serious and relatable human qualities they had in the series except for towards the very end when their daughter is dying. 

Then we have the three leads - Tomoya, Nagisa, and Sunohara. Tomoya had his complex and interesting character adapted well in terms of all the big stuff, but the movie fails to provide us the littler stuff that was just as crucial to endearing him to viewers and making him a strong leading man. Nagisa in this movie is a lot different from in the series, and is quite frankly a huge disaster because of it. Good lord, the way she’s framed and depicted is beyond ridiculous and corny to the extreme: she’s almost always positive, upbeat, and happy in her scenes, there’s almost always warm, heavenly light shining down on her and cherry blossoms blowing in the wind when she’s on screen, constant close-ups of her cute cherub face that emphasize how Too Good And Pure For This Sinful Earth she is, and even the colors of her design are changed so that her skin is very pale and her brown hair is so light it’s practically golden. She lacks solid motivation for wanting to try new things at school and re-start the Drama Club, her social awkwardness, her shyness and anxiety issues, her doormat/crybaby nature and self confidence issues are nonexistent, and instead of learning her parents’ big secret at a critical moment, she already knows it (in here they were both actors rather than just Akio being one) and says outright that it’s a motivator for her in pursuing her dream rather than a demotivator like it was originally. The only time she’s recognizable as the Nagisa I know and love is when she’s all cutely excitable about the Big Dango Family, and even that’s diminished because the movie makes her act that way all the freaking time when Dangos aren’t involved. But perhaps worst of all is that she serves as a literal definition Manic Pixie Dream Girl for Tomoya, all in service of his story rather than her own. I’m actually a sucker for seeing that trope actually done well (think Leslie Burke from Bridge To Terabithia, Senna from Bleach: Memories of Nobody, or Xion from the Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days manga adaptation), and that’s when the girls actually feel like their own well realized individuals in spite of the impact they have on the main male character’s story. But with Nagisa in this movie, I knew we were in trouble the moment the backstory info about why she’s re-taking her senior year came not from her own mouth, but from Sunohara. Oh, and speaking of, Sunohara’s probably the best and most faithfully adapted character in the film...but the problem lies in his function. To repeat: he is one of the three lead characters in the movie. All those other female characters never join the Drama Club - it’s just the trio of Tomoya, Nagisa, and Sunohara. Sunohara, a supporting character in the series, is elevated to legit main character status in this movie. He’s the fucking tritagonist of the whole piece, meaning he gets a lot of screen time. And when he goes over-the-top, he goes REALLY over-the-top, even moreso in this movie than in the series, so this is to his detriment. Sunohara worked great as a supporting characters whose antics you could watch in doses unless his presence was a crucial requirement for the current plot. Just the right amount of Sunohara goes a long way. I flat out detested him so much in the early episodes partially because his antics felt not only overplayed and repetitive, but not spaced out enough. I came around on him when the series got a better handle on how to use him, but the movie really works against his whole purpose as a character. So no matter how enjoyable his voice acting is or what laughs he got out of me at times, the screentime spent on him just felt so wrong to me. The one character I think was handled perfectly right was Naoyuki Okazaki, of all people. Actually getting to see him in a drunken stupor and see the moment where he assaulted his son in a rage rather than it all being implied or told to us was appreciated, and the resolution with him, while different, actually felt a bit more realistic. 

In terms of the narrative, the film actually impressed me with how they adapted the Illusionary World stuff. The Girl and the Junk Doll aren’t here since their ultimate purpose wasn’t to be utilized by the film, so in their place is this recurring nightmare of Tomoya’s that sees his soul severed from his body and forced to inhabit a creepy harlequin looking mannequin who travels the desolate, empty hellscape with a bicycle in search of someone or something, and trying to reach some “Tree of Promises” at the end of the world. All of these scenes were atmospheric and unsettling in the tangible surreal horror vibe they give off, which is a vastly different feel from the series’ version (where the Junk Doll’s kind of creepy at first but you get used to him after repeated exposure, and there’s overall more of a peculiar dreamlike quality and it feels like an otherworldly fairy tale or spiritual out-of-body experience rather than a freaking nightmare). But then they taint it by using it in service of the Tomoya/Nagisa love story, which might be where the movie fails the hardest. In the series, the lead characters romance felt natural, organic, developed and earned. You could see how and why they fell for each other and you could root for them as a couple. It helped that both characters were equally treated as the narrative’s protagonists and the stars of their own arcs - even after Nagisa passed away, her story didn’t end and she was still a presence that influenced the story. In the movie...why do they fall in love? Why do they become a couple, get married, and have a baby? Get this: it’s because they both have one half of the same recurring dream. They’re each other’s missing half. They’re soulmates. The movie literally plays the soulmates card! Not only is this cheesy “because they’re MEANT to be together!” narrative cheapen the relationship and rob it of it’s power, but it’s particularly bad for Nagisa because really, what does she gain out of being with Tomoya? The whole point was that being with Tomoya gave her more confidence, but she’s already plenty confident in the movie, so the only one getting benefits to their character and personal growth from this relationship is Tomoya. His feelings of love for Nagisa get heavily focused on but not her feelings in return. His pain over losing Nagisa is what matters, not her life being lost. Nagisa straight up cannot and does not exist independently of Tomoya in this version, and that ends up sabotaging the emotion of her death scene. The movie has within it’s grasp a death that could be possibly even more heartbreaking than the series version since here Nagisa starts to go into delirium and talks about walking up that hill to school like when she and Tomoya first met right before passing away. But because the lead-in was so poorly done, complete with the movie flash-forwarding ahead and outright telling us that Nagisa died well before we got to see it happen (oh, thanks for the spoiler, movie!), I just couldn’t muster up any feelings for the girl’s death after it happened. It’s yet another way the film messed up with Nagisa’s character, and since the Nagisa of the VN and anime is a serious God Tier female lead, it really sucks.

Even the ending was all kinds of fucked up. Rather than getting led towards a father-daughter trip with Ushio, Tomoya flat out gets abducted by Yoshino and the others and forcibly taken to where Akio and Sanae have Ushio waiting for him. This is the last scene of the movie, the one time where we see Ushio, and what we’re given doesn’t even come remotely close to matching Episode 18 of After Story. The emotional resonance is nil. A large part of that might be the soundtrack, as not much of Maeda’s actual tracks got used aside from the opening “Megu Meru” song, a single jaunty tune, and some of Nagisa’s theme in the ending song. Even the fucking Big Dango Family song here is completely different from the one in the show!

As a movie, I’d give it a 6/10. As an adaptation, it gets a 2/10. Unlike the series, it’s not something I could ever imagine myself revisiting.

Dragon Ball - OK, I have a confession: remember last week when I said “Did I watch it this week? I honestly can’t remember.”? Well, I kind of did watch it...but by “watch” I mean I just skimmed over the entire Fortuneteller Baba mini-tournament, up to Goku fighting his grandpa Gohan. That whole part of the story honestly never really interested me and it’s a better fit for watching during October given all the Halloween rejects that Goku was made to fight. So this week I finally ended the Red Ribbon Saga, with Goku claiming the final Dragon Ball from Emperor Pilaf and then returning to the Land of Korrin to summon Shenron and wish Bora back to life. It’s a bit polarizing to me because one on hand, dragging things out for two more episodes after Baba’s ordeal ended makes this Saga’s case of Arc Fatigue even worse, and it was definitely excruciating in the manga. But in the anime? I can’t help but enjoy it because it’s Pilaf. When animated so expressively and voiced so perfectly by Shigeru Chiba or Chuck Huber, he and his comedic interplay with Mai and Shu is just a total delight to watch every single time. We’ve not seen these jokers since the very start of this saga and I really did miss them, and got so much enjoyment out of watching Goku beat first their individual mechs, then their combining mech, and finally the weird robo-Roadrunner they tried to make their escape in. In the following episode, seeing Goku snatch the 4 Star Ball just as it turned into a rock and was about to fly off was incredible, and the resolve for him to go train himself for the next Budokai Tournament rather than continue to learn under Roshi was an interesting way to close things out and set up the next Saga. Also, Bora likening Goku to “a hero from the stars” or something along those lines is another thing that makes it amazing how the twist of Goku being a Saiyan wasn’t planned all along. In retrospect, it feels so inevitable.

Love Live Sunshine! - Season 1 came to a phenomenal close in it’s last two episodes, first with Aqours returning to Tokyo to search for what made µ's so special and able to save their own school, and then with their big debut at the regional qualifier idol performances, with both episodes marking the point where Aqours stops trying to be a µ's imitation and starts looking for their own “shine”, embracing what they are and becoming a radiant force on the school idol scene in their own right. Coming back to this show after having watched the first series really makes a big difference in how I look at certain parts: like when the girls go to Okonokizaka High. Seeing that school again, looking just as I remembered it from µ's show, gave me chills. That really is kind of the brilliance of this show - it’s a great series if you experience it without having seen it’s predecessor, and is then an even better great series if you re-experience it after seeing it’s predecessor. Seeing Aqours’ truly begin at the same beach where µ's decided they would end, and the feather that comes down at the end...God, all of it was simply brilliant. Also, Saint Snow made another appearance and they’re still perfectionist jerks but are pretty chill, sociable and agreeable in their off time, so I liked watching them and Aqours’ hanging out all friendly-like just like µ's and A-RISE used to. Oh, and all of this was springboarded because Aqours got another 0; the number of new applicants for their school was 0 despite their newfound popularity. Like Dia said, it feels like a joke at this point. The big “shining moment” for Aqours in Episode 13 more than made up for this, though. The pre-show the girls put on where they detail what makes their town and school great, recap the events of the season, and just really put themselves out there in all sincerity and vulnerability, went on for several minutes but I could care less because I was totally absorbed into it. It’s as @themattress put it in this post: a beautiful, magical moment. And then the big, grand, glorious crescendo to finish the scene follows. “Future Ticket” and the performance they put on with it might just be for Aqours what “Snow Halation” was for µ's (the exact equivalent to it will come literally in the second season’s ninth episode too, but it’s not entirely Aqours’ song), with the whole sequence surrounded by hundreds of lights and bright colors being the affirmation of Aqours as legit school idols who are worthy of so much more than a 0. Everything here, even the episode’s very name of “Sunshine”, just came together to deliver the best conclusion to this season’s narrative that you could ask for. Aqours might only get better from here, but it’s hard to feel that the show itself will. They really put out all stops with what they did with this first season, and for that I’ll always remember it well.

One weird part, though. In episode 12...what the fuck was that Mini-Honoka sliding down the rail at Okonokizaka High? That seemed way too specific to be real. Chika must’ve been imagining things!

My-HIME - Watched two episodes this week. And it’s episodes like these that bring this series’ biggest conundrum to attention - how much does this second half really benefit from the first half? It’s purely because of the first half that we know who these characters are and can care about what they’re going through now. But on the other hand, that could actually just be making it worse to see pretty much everyone turning into assholes and villains. First Yukariko, then Nao, then Mikoto, then Mai herself, and now Shizuru as well? The more this goes on, the less characters worth rooting for are left, and that could be considered a big problem with how dark and grim the show has gotten at this point. But my interest is still held by the notable events that occurred here. Just when I thought the Searrs Foundation wasn’t a thing in this show anymore, this weasely Searrs representative called John Smith turns up and exposes the truth about Natsuki’s mother - how when she turned on First District, she was planning on selling her daughter to Searrs. Mai also broke things off with Tate in order to keep him safe, she’s still being pursued by this mysterious flute playing phantom HIME, Mashiro was revealed to actually be the Obsidian Prince’s sister, the Crystal Hime, incarnated in the form of a doll that’s also a Child and that’s why she was bound to a wheelchair, the Obsidian Prince killed Mashiro and brainwashed her maid over to his side, Nagi is onto Wataru’s plan and wants to use him for something, Mikoto is still alive and serving her “brother”, and not only is Shizuru a HIME but she’s a reprehensible person who madly crushes on Natsuki to the point of sexually assaulting her and seems ready to fight Yukino and Haruka at the end ‘cause of course.

Assassination Classroom - This episode served as our first proper meeting with our main antagonist, Principal Gakuho Asano, and hole-eee shit, this guy is an impressively awesome villain already. The logic he thinks with regarding the system he seeks to uphold is chilling in how well it mirrors the thinking that goes into such institutions and systems in real life - the part where he explains the “worker ant theory” to Korosensei gave me goosebumps in how cold and cruel it was yet delivered with a straight face and a calm, reasonable voice. Speaking of his voice, Chris Rager provides it perfectly. He carries this Jamieson Price quality and made the character remind me of Rufus Shinra in Final Fantasy VII Remake what with the deep, collected businessman voice coming out of this well-dressed pretty boy, and it’s not something I expected to hear from Chris Rager given his previous work I’ve seen. Just a pitch perfect continues to be Sonny Strait’s Korosensei - I’m convinced this might be Strait’s best role to date. He gets to voice a wide array of moods, emotions, and pitches as this character, with his big speechifying to the class about why they all need to step up their game and strive for their best by carrying “a second blade” being one of his best scenes yet. But one thing regarding Korosensei that was a bit troublesome before was the amount of shilling he was getting from other characters, always being talked up as this perfect teacher who does the best job ever teaching his class and cannot be outdone as either a teacher or a target ‘cause he’s both super smart and super powerful. This would normally be the sign of a Mary Sue. And then in this episode, Gakuho comes in, builds himself up as the antithesis to everything Korosensei believes in regarding how to treat students, and he flat out bests him. The strategy he devised to ensure the E Class failed their exam and were kept down succeeds, Korosensei admits to having underestimated his enemy this time, and takes full responsibility for his own failure. And it hurts to see the poor yellow octopus man get so down, but at the same time it was very welcome to see the kinks in his armor - that he’s not perfect and can still fail at the goal he set for his students to accomplish. But in the end, the class is not feeling kept down from this setback, and Karma being the one to actually ace his test and lift Korosensei’s spirits? Through taunting and death threats? That was perfect.

Nadja of Tomorrow - So Nadja returns to the place it all began, Applefield Orphanage...and it’s abandoned. Her old caretaker died in an accident that occurred while she was away. Having to see her find this out and even go to Ms. Applefield’s grave? That was rough. But at least we got the return of Rafael, who helped his friend Nadja back on her feet. And in the next episode, John the piano prodigy returns! See, everything’s coming back - it’s all coming together. The most interesting scenes, though, were away from Nadja’s plot. Rosemary, still posing as Nadja, being moved to tears at the kindness that Colette and Hilda show her compared to how the folks back at the Gonzales Estate treated her was touching for a bit, and then she uses the moment to lie about having been abused by the staff at Applefields. What a little fiend! Then she tells Herman that she really IS Nadja Preminger now and that she will hold herself to playing that role including holding higher status and power over him. Herman, however, still thinks he can use Rosemary and keep her in her place of serving his ambition to take over the family and claim it’s wealth and assets for himself because he’s the worst. And we even got a short moment with Kennosuke and the others in the Dandelion Troupe - they still get appear on the show sometimes! Not sure how or if they factor into the current happenings, but it’s still nice to see.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - So Sai Saici discovered his late father’s will that expressed his regret over not being able to see through his dream of reviving the Shiaolin Temple before he passed away, and that motivated him to get a lot more serious and dedicated in the fight. There’s even a bit where he has a martial arts brawl with Allenby over some silly, childish reason only to abruptly stop it when he remembers he can expend too much energy before his Gundam Fight match with Domon. The match, as expected, was fierce. Sai Saici kept on striking and clobbering Domon only to always get pummeled himself and he just kept on coming back for more, to the point where he was willing to use a kamikaze attack that might kill him because he’d rather die fighting for victory than live with the shame of being this fight’s loser. Thank goodness the emperor of Neo China was around to ensure he didn’t throw his life away like that and even got him admittance to the Battle Royal (though it kinda bothered me how...white this Chinese emperor was). Minister Wong’s increased frustration over how none of the Shuffle Alliance fighters are defeating Domon brings a smile to my face, especially coupled with Master Asia’s increased pleasure at seeing his pupil live up to his expectations. They really do make the oddest evil couple.

AND

WataMote - Returned to the delightfully dismal and deranged world of Tomoko Kuroki, as she spent most of this episode trying to build herself up for a reunion with Yuu-Chan, her old middle school bestie. Looking for something to boast to her friend about or some super enthralling experience straight out of an anime to share with her proves harder for Tomoko than she thought, since she’s...well, Tomoko. Not exactly Miss Popular around town or at school, with good reason. When Yuu-Chan finally shows up in the episode’s final third, the result is a little bit predictable - when Tomoko recalls her as the plain, nerdy type, you just know she’s going to now be this really beautiful, socially outgoing, popular girl as a high schooler now. But the execution is still gold, with Tomoko turning all gray for a good many minutes after the reveal and getting this blatant girl crush on Yuu-Chan with remarks like about how good she smells. Much like the first episode, this one didn’t have that much of a well structured plot going on, but it’s still entertaining ‘cause I enjoy watching Tomoko so much. She’s just the strangest character where I find her pretty repulsive on a personal level, but at the same time I could watch her say, think, and do weird shit all day ‘cause I just can’t get enough of the cute little dork and how Monica Rial voices her. And there’s also the total contradiction of how she’s written like a pretty grounded, relatable person but is presented in a totally cartoonish way that no real person could ever emulate. This girl is a crazy walking contradiction and I love her for it. Just as impressive is how the episode got incredibly sincere and heartwarming towards the end, with Tomoko just being herself and chatting it up with Yuu-Chan, showing the common ground the two girls still share, and Yuu-Chan even admitting she wishes things were still like they were in middle school and that her time with Tomoko was so fun it made her forget her own life’s troubles. It was just so fucking sweet and wholesome, but this show still needed to end on a strong joke, which it did with Yuu mentioning she has a boyfriend, and Tomoko feeling dejected until she looks at that sketch that one student drew of her that has her looking all pretty, which gets her happy and content...totally oblivious to the fact that the guy was just a lazy artist who draws that face for insignificant background characters. Poor Tomoko, I guess?

[recentanimenews]

How the Composer of Liz and the Blue Bird Used Math Equations to Write a Soundtrack

This interview was originally published by Ricky Soberano on November 7, 2018

This article is part of Crunchyroll News' KyoAni Month celebration. Check out the rest of our KyoAni features HERE.

  Liz and the Blue Bird is not a typical anime spin-off film. An off-shoot of Sound! Euphonium, the film offers a different aesthetic, different tone, even a different set of protagonists than the main series. Liz explores the intimate and delicate inner worlds of two girls, Mizore and Nozomi, who were secondary characters in Euphonium. The world of this film is one built with small gestures, the sounds that fill an empty room, and, of course, a lovingly crafted soundtrack. This wasn't composer Kensuke Ushio's first time collaborating with director Naoko Yamada–the two worked together on A Silent Voice two years prior–and the connection between the two creators is electric. Soundtracks are commonly associated with the word "accompaniment," something that supplements rather than complements the rest of a work, but Ushio was involved with Liz in a much deeper way, down to shaping the very themes of the film with Yamada. 

  Ushio's score makes prominent use of the piano, but as you listen other sounds come to the forefront — shoes upon pavement, hands striking the top of a desk, the clinking of science classroom beakers–through these sounds an entire world blooms around us. Visuals and narrative can only show us what happens in specific segments of time, but the use of these everyday sounds pulls us into the world. It's easier to feel what it's like to spend every day at Kitauji High School. Ushio's soundtrack and Yamada's film work together to weave a world of light and sound, a place that feels at once real yet too delicate to ever enter. At Anime Expo 2018, I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Ushio about his work on Liz and the Blue Bird.

  Liz and The Blue Bird marks your second collaboration with director Naoko Yamada. Could you explain how your working relationship began?

  So I was doing solo work in Japan and Yamada just happened to hear my music. She became a fan. She reached out to me to collaborate together.

  Were you a fan of Yamada-san’s work before as well?

  Yes, I was.

  For whatever it's worth, here's Naoko Yamada posing with Kensuke Ushio, composer of Koe no Katachi. pic.twitter.com/9oQQZqt0oR

— Nachi-sama (@NaChiKyoTsuki97) November 11, 2017

  I’ve read that you were closely involved from the very beginning with forming the core themes of Liz and the Blue Bird which is a bit unusual for a composer of anime. Could you describe the level of involvement you had in the planning of the film with Ms. Yamada?

  We discussed things before the storyboards or even the music was made so we had that talk about core themes as opposed to other composers. They would normally add the music towards the beginning of the production. Myself and Yamada-san, we discussed and planned everything out before we went into producing both the storyboards and composing the music. I loved creating a core concept.

    Could you talk a little bit more about the themes of disjoint and coprime?

  So one of the core themes for the movie’s sound was a story about two girls who are together at first but slowly drift apart as things go along so we’d like to address how that happens and what leads to it.

  The way that the idea of coprime works is that you have two series that starts with an integer — for example, four and five. They’re very close at first but as you go further along in the series, they get farther and farther away. That’s one of the reasons we thought the idea of coprime would fit into the context of the story itself.

  That’s really beautiful.

From the sound of footsteps being used as percussion in a song to the noise of classroom objects folding into the background music, ambient sound plays a special role in this film. How did you capture all of these noises and what was your purpose in leaving them in every part of the film?

  One of the things that we thought when applying all of this is that we didn’t want people to realize or understand the idea that these girls were slowly drifting apart from each other just because it’s such a sad occurrence. That was one of the core parts as well when we were planning out how to do and use the sound effects.

  We also wanted to show that there was no one else around in the world. It was just those two girls. There wasn’t really anyone else to help or support or anything like that.

  One of the main ideas that was always in my head while making the soundtrack was to use only the objects that they could actually see, such as in the tables and desks in the classroom, and the seats, even the beakers in the science rooms and all of that sort of stuff. We went to the actual school that the film is based on and we went around to all of the objects just to get all of the sounds and make it even more authentic.

    For what it’s worth as a viewer, it really brought me into the world, the very small world of these characters. You and Yamada worked with sound director, Yôta Tsuruoka on A Silent Voice and are together again for this film. Could you explain Tsuruoka’s role and how he affected the sounds of Liz and the Blue Bird?

  So for us, Tsuruoka is 20 or so years older than us. He is always someone we can rely on — someone that gives their all in that perspective — so for us personally his presence was something that allowed us to go ahead with what we needed to do and if anything came ever up, we could rely on him to help us out. He is a really, really great person. I love him.

    There are numerous times in Liz and the Blue Bird where the music and imagery invoke a nostalgic, difficult to describe sentiment. With such hard to describe abstract feelings, how did you and Yamada make sure that you were both on the same page for the emotional feelings of the movie?

  So, the fact that we’re very close in age and grew up enjoying the same sort of music ... that helped us stay on the same wavelength during the projects. Our similarities just ensured that we were always really close in mindset. We can talk about over ten years of music that we both enjoy. It’s a really cool thing. I thought we united and bonded.

  As for the soundtrack's sheet music itself, we made that through a process called decalcomania (note: an art technique where paint or ink is pressed into a folded paper to create symmetrical designs) which the way we’ve made that, is a way of representing how the two girls, that sort of disjoint between them and that gradual separation. We took that and used that as the base for the soundtrack as well so that’s one of the reasons why it ended up with such a nostalgic tone to it.

  Some of the sheet music created using decalcomania.

  Within the decalcomania you’ll see different objects represented by different colors, the beaker, the piano, the desk scraping sound. For example, the footsteps are synchronized to the music. The footsteps had an actual tempo. The tempo is 99, 100, 101. These are coprime numbers. The footsteps tempo is always a coprime number but also we slightly moved the tempo because we are humans and not robots, so we can't perfectly match it. So, at the very end of this film, you saw this lovely on-screen situation — I cannot remember the tone but for a second the footsteps are completely synced. Just the footsteps. This was so unexpected, even for me, hearing that the footsteps ended up in sync together. It felt like a genuine miracle that that happened. It was a joint moment.

    The disjoint becomes joined. I know that Liz and the Blue Bird just released recently but do you and Naoko Yamada have any plans to work together in the future?

  I hope so! After finishing A Silent Voice, we thought "we can do more." This is a result. After finishing Liz and the Blue Bird, we thought again, "we can do more."

  Beautiful. One more thing: Do you have anything you’d like to say to the fans of you and Yamada’s work in the West?

  The reason why I think Liz and the Blue Bird is entertaining is maybe because ... you’re crying. I think it’s a really nice story so I hope you like it.

After I saw this film, after the production was finished, I cried. But I cannot find the words to express myself. I wasn’t able to understand myself what I was feeling — sadness or despair — but at the same time, I did sort of understand what was being felt in the first place. I’m hoping fans abroad will be able to go through that same experience. Maybe realize something that they haven’t before.

    Cayla Coats is the Editor-in-Chief of Crunchyroll News. She tweets @ceicocat

Interview by Cayla Coats, additional contributions by Ricky Soberano.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[a-bucket-full-of-feels]

so i’ve been looking at hibike movie discussion and my past tumblr reblogs/posts about hibike content (including internal monologue) and again i’m just filled with frustration about the yuribaiting and the way kumiko/reina, shuuichi/kumiko and taki/reina’s relationship dynamic was handled again

detaching myself from my emotions attached to kmr as a shipper, the intended relationship dynamic for the both of them is supposed to be that of extremely close friends in a mutually supportive relationship of self-discovery and self-pursuit of goals. and that’s a nice wholesome kind of relationship that doesn’t need to be romantic, which was also well fleshed out for both seasons. but the deliberate artistic/directorial choices made to make it seem romantic (the lighting, camera angles, even the choice of the piece they played on the mountain - a video by digibro explains this at length better than me) just puts the notion of romance into the viewer’s mind, even for regular viewers not on the look out for yuri ships (like myself).

and you know, that’s all fine and dandy (happens all the time in animes with main characters of the same gender) but the issue is that you have the shkm’s relationship, which in the source material becomes romantic for a period of time. i do understand that the anime writers don’t seem to want to make shkm canon, and i concur since romance was never and should never be the main plot of hibike anyway, but because of all the romantic undertones in kmr, the sporadic moments of shkm just rubs many off the wrong way when they happen. and again, detacing myself from those emotions, i can tell that the intended dynamic for shkm is also mainly about platonic friendship. of course, it’s very different from kumiko’s relationship with reina - the former is a lot more deep and passionate, whereas kumiko has known shuuichi for a long time - they take jabs at each other, casually express disgust, but it’s a type of friendship that friends who know each other for a long time can have, and they obviously care about each other. shuuichi has expressed some sort of romantic attraction to kumiko at some points but kumiko was not ready to accept shuuichi in a romantic way, and again, that’s ok, it’s the sort of thing that can happen to friends of the opposite gender who know each other for a long time, and moreover it’s during their teenage years where they’re starting to discover their sexuality and romantic inclinations. and yes, the rational side of me accepts that shuuichi is a good guy and that majority of their interactions in the anime are platonic. but because of the way the writing causes me to incline towards kmr, i can’t help but to feel viscerally upset and anxious when shkm moments occur.

and let’s face it - kmr will NOT be canon. it was never canon, it was never meant to be canon. i was hoping kyoani would turn the tides in s2, but after a while i just accepted that it was plain ol’ yuribaiting. and it’s just really frustrating - perhaps one of the reasons why they went the extra mile in the artistic direction to portray the development of kumiko and reina’s deep friendship to make it so “magical” and “special” was to allow the viewers to understand how much reina would influence kumiko’s development as a character later on. but it just came off as “too much” and (more than) subtly romantic, which just makes shuuichi’s romantic attraction to kumiko and reina’s blatant infatuation with taki just off-putting to watch.

and speaking of taki sensei and reina, since i’m already knee-deep into my rant i’ll just go deeper. i know many people have mentioned it and i may have talked about it before on my blog, but reina’s arc relating to her infatuation for taki sensei was handled poorly and really was a dampener on a character that was so well-written and striking in s1. yes, reina’s admiration for taki (which she misinterprets for feelings of love) is what motivates many of her actions and development as a trumpet player, but it was particularly frustrating when she “confessed” to taki even after that decisive episodes where she seems to come to grips with her relationship and feelings for taki. the details are fuzzy because i haven’t revisited the anime since it last aired, but again this reina arc in general rubbed me off the wrong way as well.

in summary, the way these relationships are handled in hibike frustrate me because i want to appreciate this anime wholeheartedly because it’s so good on so many levels - the plot, the characters, the themes, the art, the music - but the handling of kmr and the relationships that are closely tied to it really dampens my experience of enjoying the series because the emotional shipper side of me always wanted kmr to prevail even though it was never meant to be anything more than platonic.

[kordeliiius]

Winter Anime 2018 First Impressions

Decided to do another one of these; it’ll probably be a regular for each season I get into! LET’S GOOO! (Note: I won’t be doing impressions for anything continuing from last season. [Fall] This consists of: Sangatsu no Lion S2, Classicaloid S2, Black Clover, The Ancient Magus’ Bride.)

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card - I’ve read this entire manga up to the point where they’re in middle school, but I’ve never watched an episode of the anime, so I was worried if the new series was gonna continue with any of the liberties that were made. And it seems to adhere to the manga this time around! The series prologue was a good recap for me, since I haven’t read CCS in years. And it overall looks better than the original anime. As for the actual new show it’s pretty good to start, with the new story picking up the pace quickly, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens! One of my major gripes is with some of the voices; I think Tomoyo’s voice is too high-pitched, and Errol’s is too... deep? Raspy? Kinda rubs me the wrong way. Though I REALLY liked the ED, it’s very well-animated.

Pop Team Epic - No.... words?? It’s just bizarre?? Okay so the show is based on a yonkoma series, so obviously each episode is composed of a bunch of animated shorts. But the episodes themselves are also short, being 10 minutes each. So what they do to fill up time is to play two versions of it: one version where the girls have Stronk Man Voices, the other in high-pitched voices. (only one of which sounds like a girl, oddly. I think they have the most fitting voices in the part where they’re speaking French. Also there’s an irl French guy in this...) The series has a slight meta vibe to it. There’s a references to other media like Kimi no Na Wa (which) killed me), Totoro, and Skyrim in a sequence that I can only describe as something similar to The Matrix. For some reason, instead of making an intro sequence or end card with the main characters, it’s replaced with some sort of high school idol anime concept that’s totally unrelated, but I guess it’s to deceive the viewers?? (Note from the future: the actual OP sounds really good.) And there’s one scene with a bunch of faceless “corporate bad guys”, who say there’s no way a yonkoma can become an anime, but they’ll find a way to win the season. (Hey man, put down the fidget spinner, Chito and Yuuri already stole last season by dabbing and Kyoani’s takin the cake this time)

Karakai Jouzu no Tagaki-san - So I got the original recommendation through Lost Pause, who said that this series is extremely heartwarming, that he has never shipped two people harder in his life. So I decided to check it out, because everyone needs that comedic refresher for each season. Generally speaking, Takagi-san was alright. I really enjoyed the main characters' antics (seriously, Takagi is a genius prankster), though I did not expect Yuki Kaaji's voice to come out of the other kid's mouth. The pacing is quite slow, probably to more effectively build up to the punchline of a gag, and the animation was a bit better than I expected. I'm kind of on the fence about this one. I'll stay with it for a few more weeks at least.

Violet Evergarden - Oh God, where do I even begin? Okay, so when I first discovered this show, I thought Violet would be an actual mechanical doll, but it turns out my second suspicion, her being an amputee with mechanical arms, was correct. Her following orders strictly, not knowing what love is, and being part of the “auto memories doll” service all lead me to think she’s a machine, but it turns out she’s the way she is because she was raised in the military, where everyone claimed she was a “tool” without a mind of her own. I personally think the former would have been more interesting. (She doesn’t fully understand metaphors or death either, so I think it’s likely she has autism as well.) So far, I’m really fond of the art style and character designs, and while we didn’t get the best animation that’s been shown in the trailers yet, we got some pretty good sequences, during the end credits for example. (The final scene, however, rekt me.) The first episode has only given me more questions about Violet and her fellow veterans’ backgrounds, so I’ll definitely be continuing the beautiful and emotional ride!

Yuru Camp - Okay, first, if you want the short review: this show... is cuuuuuuuuute! Like seriously, Nadeshiko is a little ball of sunshine. But yeah, I feel like Yuru might as well be a candidate for THE slice of life--kick up your feet and watch cute girls do cute things--anime of the season. It's got some pretty good tracks, some I think I could chill out and work to sometime, and I’m also really, REALLY fond of the background art. I don't think camping is something that's been done in anime, at least not very often. I've been camping many times myself, but I don't think I've seen anyone make a fire the way Rin does, so maybe this is a show I could learn some trivia from? The one thing that's shocked me so far is that the first part of the episode consists of a school student camping all by herself! And apparently this is something she regularly does? (scary) Seems like she could use the help that I suspect is coming from the other main cast eventually. I think I'll stay and witness how they all teach each other new things to do with camping, and exactly how far they'll walk together.

Check back in after a few weeks for my ongoing review!

[zachwritesstuff]

Who Killed Suzumiya Haruhi?

It's hard to believe that, back in the early 2000s, the most popular anime were Death Note, Code Geass, and a random quirky show about a schoolgirl. But 11 years ago, a show premiered that seemed to break out beyond it's niche audience inside the slice of life genre, and actually gain a bit of mainstream appeal. It's impact could be debatable, but as a person who lived through it, it was hard not to hear about the phenomenon of Suzumiya Haruhi, thanks in part to it's amazing performances, great use in Key Animation, and of course, it's catchy ending theme, complete with accompanying dance.

With all this hype and popularity, it was pretty much certain that the series would go down as one of the mainstays of Anime worldwide. And yet, in 2018, it's little more than a footnote, at best a forgotten groundwork for things that came after it, at worst, a tarnished collection of broken promises, missed opportunities and terrible decisions.

Strong arguments can and have been made for how it ended up like this. The main culprit, as we will venture into, is the scheduling and release of new episodes. It's a terrible thing that has brought down shows bigger and smaller than it. But to say that it was the only reason for it would be, I believe, an oversimplification of just all that went on from the premiere of Haruhi to now. Hell, if that was the only problem, than there shouldn't have been any issue with the series from a couple years back based on Nagato Yuki. And yet, it ended up as a mostly middling show with very little fanfare throughout.

So what, in the long run, killed this series to the point of near obscurity? Well, let's take a look at some of the suspects...

1. Releases

So let's first talk about the aforementioned elephant in the room: The release of episodes. From the start, the way that they released new episodes for the series was bizarre, but in a fun way. Instead of just doing it normally, they released it in a nonlinear order. And it made an immediate impact too. The first episode, shot in the style of an amateur movie, introduces all of the characters as they are playing other characters, with only hints of the title character Haruhi, who served as the director for this film. From there, we are introduced to her and her quirks, along with the extended cast of oddballs like Mikuru, Yuki and Koizumi.

The first season of Haruhi was, unquestionably, a success. Not only did it bring it fans internationally, it also helped put Kyoto Animation on the map, helping them eventually become one of the major anime production companies in Japan. Though they had some success with shows like Full Metal Panic and Air, Haruhi was the first show that had the success on the level they hadn't experienced before, and influenced all of their shows from then on (not including the Key shows, like Clannad and Kanon, of course).

So that made it even more bizarre that, instead of immediately working on a sequel, there was a three year break between seasons. Other shows take breaks that are that long, and even longer, but what made it so weird is how little information came out between the two. After the release of Lucky Star, which had many references to Haruhi, there was a virtual silence, save for weird clues and ARG-like hints on what might come.

When the second season eventually did come, they did it in their similarly quirky way. Instead of simply airing the new season out of order, like the first season, they instead aired the first season in order, and interspersed the episodes from the second season where they would fit in the first season chronological. A bit irksome, but very much in line with how Haruhi operated up to that point. The first nail in Haruhi's coffin didn't really come until...

2. The Endless Eight

The Endless Eight was a storyline in the novel series that involved Haruhi wanting the summer season to never end, inadvertently causing her and her friends to relive the same eight days over and over again without them knowing. It was a single chapter in the novels, and had a few repeated scenes to highlight the cyclical nature of the eight days. When it came time to adapt them to the anime series, the producers decided to have some fun. Why not take the eight days, and show how repetitive it REALLY was, by making it into eight episodes?

And so they did. For eight weeks, viewers tuned in to see the same episode played time after time, with only the outfits and a couple lines of dialogue different with each episode. The first couple of times, it seemed funny. By the third episode, one would wonder if they were actually doing what we thought they were doing. And after confirmation by the fourth episode, at least personally, myself and friends simply gave up, skipping the rest until the end, when we would finally get the conclusion without the quirkiness.

This sentiment was shared among many fans, and made one thing pretty clear: Though it was in line with the style of the show, fans really didn't want to watch the same episode over and over, especially since it cut a majority of the season out, leaving only six original episode. It also didn't help that the last five episode of the season were a five part miniseries that had it's own problematic scene of the beloved main character drugging her friend.

The second season of Haruhi wasn't fondly remembered, to say the least. Though the first episode of it is considered one of the better episodes of the show, everything that followed was pretty much downhill, with very little rise after the Endless Eight. It also didn't help that there was...

3. Internal Competition

The reairing of Haruhi with the second season started on April 3rd, 2009. The same day, Kyoto Animation premiered another one of it's shows: A fun show about a group of girls starting a band in school called K-On!. Compared to the disappointment of what was going on with Haruhi, the simplicity and overall cute aesthetic of K-On! was a breath of fresh air. It overshadowed it's predecessor and spelled out the next step for Kyoto Animation: A much simpler and straight forward way of releasing their shows, free of quirks and clues.

The reaction from Season 2 of Haruhi also seemed to scare KyoAni from ever making more than two seasons of a show, as they did not do so for the next nine years, only breaking their record in the summer of 2018, making a third season of Free! Eternal Summer.

4. Film, Spin-Offs and Novel Releases

The last hurrah for Haruhi ended up being The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, the film based on the novel by the same name. Unlike the second season, the film was pretty well received, considered one of the best showings of all of the characters. It, along with the showings of the side adaptions of popular fan series Nyoron Churuya-san and The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan, gave the fans some modicum of hope that the series could build it's way out of the hole that Endless Eight dug.

And then another problem arose.

The writer of the original novel series, Nagaru Tanigawa, wrote the novels pretty consistently, starting in 2003. He would release 1-2 novels a year, up until 2007, roughly a year after the first season ended. Not much is really known about the whole situation, as no one has really come out to talk about it. All that is really known is that, after the end of the first season, there was a gap of all Haruhi related content for a few years, until the second season and movie premiered. The next set of novels wouldn't come out until 4 years later, in 2011, before leaving off on an open ending that, to this day, has never been resolved. Tanigawa has not stated that the series has ended, but at least at the time of this writing, there have been no plans for anymore novels.

And that was pretty much the last anyone heard about Haruhi for several years. Little hints and clues would pop up every once in a while, but they ended up being new products and blu-ray releases of the older series. It wasn't until 2015 that another series based on Haruhi was released, this time based on the universe set up in Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi and focusing on the side character Yuki. It was the first time the original cast had been together since the movie back in 2010, which was especially surprising when you consider the fact that the actresses behind Haruhi and Mikuru, Aya Hirano and Yuko Goto respectively, had serious health issues that threatened their careers.

The combination of gaps in productions, memories of the Endless Eight and the constantly changing anime industry spelled out the unfortunate truth for this new show: no one really cared about Haruhi anymore. A series that started as a cultural phenomenon ended with barely a wimper. A truly sad sight.

So now the big question posed by the title: Who Killed Suzumiya Haruhi? Well, looking at all of the evidence, it seems that the ultimate answer is simple: Time. The long gaps and slow followups caused the world to change around it, leaving it behind. Make no mistake, Haruhi was and is great, even today. But you can't fumble too many times without eventually losing the ball all together. It's completely possible that there might be a resurgence of Haruhi in the future, and I would welcome it, just as I welcomed the original show over ten years ago. But for now, we will leave it as a sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant, memory of the anime industry, and let it's catchy ending song and dance play it out...

[icecreambat]

replies long time no see! (sry...)

theoniprince replied to your post: on Free! S3

I am also not sure how to feel about S3. S2 was such a big disappointment… sooo well. We will see. In my opinion it is just bc they can earn money IDDDD

yeah i mean, my initial reaction was just to close twitter and watch three episodes of JoJo and not think about it at all. the second you so much as think about a new season, the floodgates open and we’re all reminded of all the things that ES disappointed on, starting from the pacing and ending with far too many plot threads than they could possibly handle. like i also commented on twitter, i’m the kind of viewer who cares more about HOW things happen than what actually does, so my biggest fear is always kyoani jumping right over proper execution and just trying to cash in on merchandise.

and i mean, i have no idea what the case here really is; who knows if they’ve had this in the plans forever, were inspired by YOI’s success, or if god revealed it to kyoani in a dream. still, i hope to god they have some kind of story to tell. when it comes right down to it i just want closure for sousuke and the rest is just a nice bonus; i mean, that’s obviously sort of a hyperbole, but after ES my expectations are also so ridiculously low that maybe it turns out to be a blessing in disguise? i don’t even want "harurin stuff” if it doesn’t flow organically, but i also have zero assumptions at this point so... who knows.

also i just realized this one had gotten buried in the depths of other stuff, so with some delay, a response!

doctor-queenie replied to your post: Time is worth everything

It’s a new story that begins now for you ! It can be scary but it’s also very exciting…and, for what it’s worth home is wherever your heart is. It doesn’t have to be just one place. Good luck!!! Make your new home in England and be happy ♡

a belated thank you for the encouragement but a thank you nonetheless! luckily things have been great here and this city has turned out to be everything i ever hoped it would, so while letting go of that one chapter was wistful in many ways, i do like the idea of home being in many places (since i tend to always be in between many at once). So again, thank you!

[x0401x]

When the irony is almost too ironic

So now that I’ve posted the rest of the character highlights (had to split them into two because of Tumblr’s image limit), I might as well comment on them too. Need to get this off my chest for a moment.

The highlights of Masaki, Eisuke and Koushirou in particular gave me whiplash. They threw me back to my reviews of S2 in ways that feel oddly cathartic. Like how they just… keep confirming literally everything I pointed out as negative in S2. It’s weird because those things were all so obvious, but the way they’re written in the fanbook almost exactly how I talked about them is… well, it’s really something. Some of it even dates back to things I said regarding S1 six years ago. I don’t know how to describe this but it sort of feels like being vindicated in a morbid way, if that makes any sense.

I just wonder… when whoever was in charge of writing this text typed it down, did they actually believe that it had anything to do with the source material at all? Because it… kinda reads like they did? “The only thing he thought about was improving his skills in order to change his grandfather’s opinion of him” really sounds like that’s what they got from Masaki’s backstory and, uh. How. How do you miss the point by so far? It literally went in the opposite direction. We already knew that but still.

Also gotta love that it says his mindset changed when he watched the boys doing archery in earnest, instead of Minato being the one who changed it when he begged Masaki not to leave him. KyoAni really went out of its way to make sure that there’s absolutely nothing exclusive in their relationship this time around. Everything that was originally a them-only thing in the novel has been turned into a Masaki and the boys' thing in S2.

Speaking of the team, the implication that Masaki started out not rejoicing in his disciples’ development but learned to do it eventually is just brutal. I get what KyoAni is trying to convey to the viewers and that they’re making up for a lot of what they didn’t show in S1, but the timing is terrible and it’s a contradiction of basic Zen principles. Principles that Masaki had already been shown to follow prior to this.

Alas, that’s just one contradiction of many. Masaki is probably the character with the biggest amount of incoherences in how he is portrayed in the anime. My guess is the animators were so focused on collecting material about archery that collecting material about Shinto priesthood probably wasn’t a priority. More like they were so focused on the boys that Masaki was relegated to the sidelines. And I say this a lot but have to say it again: that’s what happens when you try to write Masaki separately from Minato. It goes off the rails.

Other than this, there’s also confirmations of some of my suspicions. Masaki almost telling the boys what they got wrong, then deciding to do it the Zen way and letting them find out for themselves only after getting a cue from Tomio is one thing that I hadn’t been so sure if I was just overthinking or not, but turns out not. This is the anime’s way of telling the viewers that Masaki, too, is growing as a teacher, but they could’ve done something equivalent that wouldn’t make him seem contradictorily inexperienced.

I say contradictorily because, again, he has been teaching these kids in the Zen way (indirect, mystic, full of puzzles, fuck around and find out for yourself, master throws a question and disciple has to give his own answer) from the very beginning. Even in S1 he was already doing that. But in S2, just like the boys suddenly forget how to work as a team, Masaki seems to suddenly forget how he had been teaching them until then. So he suddenly becomes a greenhorn as well, because it’s totally realistic for a high schooler like Eisuke to be the perfect teacher for a bunch of other high schoolers, but a 5th dan has to start again from zero. They could’ve just animated Masaki’s fight with Minato and let that be his greenhorn moment, but their relationship isn’t supposed to exist in S2, so this just isn’t an option, apparently.

Speaking of Eisuke, now I finally understand why his relationship with Shuu and Minato felt so off in the anime to me. In the novel, his beef was with them, not with Saionji. Saionji chose them as disciples because he felt something fateful about meeting them. It’s never explained in the novel, but a while after I finished reading volume 3, I got hit with a thought. I felt this was the author’s way of hinting that the three of them are an allegory to Amida Sanzon, with Saionji being Amida Nyorai, Shuu being Seishi Bosatsu and Minato being Kannon Bosatsu. Same logic applies to the Minato-Masaki-Shuu trinity, since Masaki has also taught Shuu at some point, with Masaki being Amida in this case. I imagine that Ayano wrote about it so vaguely in volume 1 because she didn’t know whether or not she could delve this deep into Buddhist territory back then.

But in any case, the way that the novel establishes the conflict with Eisuke is: Minato and Shuu are special. Not in general, but to Saionji, specifically. Teaching them is his calling and being taught by him is their calling. But all Eisuke gets from this is the first part. That Minato and Shuu are special, and he is not. That somehow they were regarded more highly than him, who is older and more experienced, when actually, they were not. Saionji simply felt that it was his mission to teach them, and he was right about that. Eisuke could’ve tried to find his own calling with another master—one who perhaps could teach him in uchiokoshi style. Instead, he chose to be immature and became obsessed with proving himself superior to Minato and Shuu. He could not stand the idea that little kids with no previous experience, one that got apprenticeship through connections and one by dumb luck, were worthier to be taught than him and even his uncle.

Eisuke also seems to have felt like there was something fateful about Saionji choosing them over him. The way he talked about it felt a lot like chosen people ideology, which even Shuu sometimes seemed to believe whenever he went on about being “loved by the god of archery”. He’s pretty much looking down on Saionji by thinking Saionji was mistaken to choose Minato and Shuu over him, and it’s extremely arrogant to try and prove Saionji wrong by defeating Minato and Shuu. It’s also childish logic, because defeating them would prove nothing, actually. And that’s the point of the novel. Same point as Zen Buddhism and archery: those who hold grudges can never reach spiritual adulthood. Eisuke is, as his name itself implies, forever a child on the inside.

But all of that makes Eisuke look kinda lame in the eyes of the audience, doesn’t it? And Yamamura Takuya is having none of that with his new bias. Nuh-uh, the ones who have to look bad are Saionji, and by extension, Minato and Shuu. Because pulling the rug from under the main characters’ feet is the smartest possible move.

In the anime, as confirmed by the fanbook, Eisuke’s problem is Saionji. Not because she chose Minato and Shuu over him, but because she rejected his uncle. In the novel, Saionji rejecting Shigeru was also something that pissed him off, but his main problem was with Minato and Shuu. In the anime, that’s the opposite, which is why Eisuke is way less hostile and childish towards them in it. The difference that this makes is: the anime makes Eisuke look good in detriment of Minato and Shuu. With him being angry at Saionji for her being unfair to Shigeru, his attitude and motives seem justified. It’s not about him, it’s about someone he loves and admires. That one hurts more and doesn’t make him seem arrogant at all for defying her decision. It even almost seems like Saionji is in the wrong for hurting his family’s honor in certain respects, and that he rightfully wants closure from it but isn’t going the best way about it, which is his one and only mistake. And with Saionji being the target of his anger, he doesn’t need to be as antagonistic with Minato and Shuu in particular.

Now this might make people think, “Isn’t that better than in the novel, then?” That is subjective, but objectively speaking, this is a narrative incongruency. Novel!Eisuke is an example of how narrow-mindedness and lack of humility can lead one astray. By taking away his arrogance and just making him angry while justifying this anger, they’re basically taking away the reason for him to fail. It also makes him more endearing than the actual protagonists and makes the audience want to cheer for him instead of them (which a lot of people did). And none of that is an accident, because the director himself says it in this fanbook that he likes Eisuke personally. Or the traits that he can identify with, at least.

On the topic of Eisuke being the director’s bias, it’s amazing how the other members of Tsujimine basically exist in the anime not as their own person but as extensions of Eisuke. They’re there to make him look better and to do things for him. Koushirou’s highlight made me realize that we only ever get any information about the other members in relation to Eisuke, save for when Enyuu had a crush on Rika, but this was meant to give the girls more screen time rather than give him a personality. I always wondered why Reiji, who is so flashy in the novel, was so meek in the anime, but now I guess it’s because no one can catch more attention than Eisuke. Literally all data there is in the fanbook about Koushirou and the others is linked to Eisuke. His highlight is only about what he does to help Eisuke, even though the anime never explains why Koushirou goes that far for him in the first place. It’s not interested in exploring Koushirou himself. The director’s only interest is Eisuke.

S2 is such a frustrating topic to write about. So many things were done well and so many were done horribly. I feel terrible whenever I analyze anything Tsurune-related nowadays.

[pod7]

Winter Anime* 2017 Lightning Review

*just the shows I watched of course

Shows included - ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka, Ai Mai Mi: Surgical Friends, Akiba’s Trip The Animation, All Out!!, BanG Dream!, Chain Chronicle, Chaos;Child, Demi-chan wa Kataritai, ElDLive, Fuuka, Gabriel Dropout, Gintama., Hand Shakers, Kemono Friends, Kobayashi-san chi no Maid Dragon, KonoSuba S2, Kuzu no Honkai, Little Witch Academia, Masamune-kun no Revenge, Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu, Mori no Yousei: Kinoko no Musume, Nobunaga no Shinobi, Nyanko Days, One Room, Onihei, Piace: Watashi no Italian, Pokemon Sun & Moon, Sangatsu no Lion, Seiren, Spiritpact, Urara Meirochou, Youjo Senki

Settle in for some long reviews, and probably the worst reviewed season since I started doing this! Wow!

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka It’s a MADhouse production, so I went in pretty sure I would like it. I was a bit wrong on my first impression; I thought it would be a man on the run type show, but it was actually a more nuanced, spy-that-doesn’t-know-he’s-a-spy type story. I liked the character design. It reminded me of some of the manga series in the “non-moe art” tag on Dynasty Scans. I was in love at first sight with Director General Mauve, voiced by Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko, Ghost in the Shell), and hoped she would play a bigger role than she actually did. I was completely taken off guard by Jean’s confession of his feelings for Grossular at the end, which Mauve had in common. If it had to be someone, I would have guessed it to be Niino, in the old ‘observer falls for subject’ cliche. Still, a welcome, and very low-key revelation that is certainly welcome. The music is really great in this series, especially the intro and outro themes. I would have like for some of the female cast members to have more to do; there were seemingly more women in the show, but they hardly ever had any relevancy. Also, a bit more action or urgency would have been nice. It felt towards the end like this would be called “the hipster’s anime”. Definitely recommended. 9/10

Ai Mai Mi: Surgical Friends Just as ridiculous as ever, though it had some oddly serious parts in some episodes as well. I am appreciating more and more the bit during the credits of each episode where an alpaca recounts an awkward tale of the life of the mangaka who writes AMM. I think the randomness is wearing thin now though. 7/10

Akiba’s Trip The Animation I had never played the game before so I didn’t really have any idea what this was about besides being located in Akihabara. It had a lot of parallels with Punch Line, which I noted in my first impression, just chock full of references and insider humor that I think ended up being lost on a lot of the Western viewers (including me, obviously.) I enjoy the first eight or so episodes, but right when most probably thought it got interesting, for me it was like I just couldn’t stand to watch it anymore. I ended up skimming through the last episodes, but honestly, unless you are REALLY into Akihabara as a culture or just otaku interests in general, I would pass on this show, sadly. Having to watch the idol performance more than once was torture. 6/10

All Out!! The not-so-subtle pattern that is emerging in my anime viewing habits, is that I will start a sport or game series, as soon as it becomes entirely focused on the sport or game itself, I lose interest almost immediately. The same unfortunately happened here; as soon as they hit training camp, it was like I was watching a completely different show, and just couldn’t stand to even skim through it at the end. They can’t all be winners, and even MADhouse can’t be perfect all the time. Dropped

BanG Dream! My first impression was pretty much right on the nose; this is literally what would happen if the people behind Love Live adapted K-On. The melodrama of Love Live with similar archetypes to K-On. Unfortunately, no super gorgeous teacher steps in to help, and instead of a school they have to save the local girls-only concert venue by playing a pop rock version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I wish I were kidding. Not horrible or offensive, but just felt like a phoned in effort from the waifu buffet factory. 6/10

Chain Chronicle Sadly I just kind of forgot this show was even on, even though it showed signs of promise, I just couldn’t bring myself to care enough to catch up on it. Dropped

Chaos;Child The edgiest of edge. It made me appreciate the GOOD parts of Occultic;Nine that much more. I might have watched more if the adaptation of the prequel (episode zero) wasn’t just about the most boring thing I’ve watched in years. Dropped

Demi-chan wa Kataritai Top 3 of the season. It definitely felt less wacky than the manga, but I was okay with that. Satou-sensei stole the show, but Machi held her own in my opinion. It was funny to see how fast people tried to turn on the show when Hikari made Machi’s body hug Sensei and he was embarrassed because her boobs pressed into him when he wasn’t expecting it. However with a certain maid being INCREDULOUS, that movement died out before the next episode even came out. It was a good adaptation, and I think may just be my “comfy” show of the season, though again, a certain maid gave it a run for it’s money there too. 9/10

ElDLive I stand by my previous Space Patrol Luluco comparison. It was silly for the sake of being silly, but tried to add various chuuni and action tropes in to spice it up. To be quite honest this was a bit of a stinker, and only watched it for Misuzu to see if she grew any over the season (she did, but just the tiniest bit.) 4/10

FUUKA This was basically KimiKiss Pure Rouge but flipped love interests and included music to make more money off of the property with. It doesn’t do anything new or interesting, and it wasn’t satisfying at all. Like even knowing that Fuuka would end up being the girl the protag had feelings for, I still thought that maybe, just maybe she would do SOMETHING endearing in the least, but no, she just kind of was a brat at all points. Everything was really pretty, but zero substance. 3/10

Gabriel Dropout I think I started reading the manga for this before reading Demi-chan or Maid Dragon, so it’s kind of a surprise that of those three, this felt like the weakest effort. Something was lost in translation to animation to take away the magic presented in print. It was still enjoyable, it just didn’t have the punch I was expecting it to have, and I don’t know if it’s the low key music or the voices or what. Calling it a disappointment is going too far for me, but I certainly thought it would be better. 7/10

Gintama. Top 3 of the season. Pretty much just the adaptation of a single story arc, but an important one. Also, a super kick-ass, pulls no punches season. Loved the hell out of this show before, but this took it to a whole new level. I mentioned in my first impression that the period was a bit scary, but I now see that it was more of an affirmative statement, “GINTAMA, period.” 10/10

Hand Shakers This was really bad. Like, it’s a known thing that this show is bad. It was excruciating to give this show three whole episodes, but I managed it somehow. As admirable as it is that they went out on a limb to make their own original series, that doesn’t save it from being an over-designed, poorly thought out mess of a show. Dropped

Kemono Friends I just want the record to show that I was on board with this show from the very beginning, whereas the MAL user score was as low as 4.2 at the start of the season. It’s the innocence of Serval mixed with the goofiness of the friends, rounded out by the mystery of Kaban that give this show it’s oomph. The character design is really great too. Basically what it boils down to is that this show has four or five things that the internet typically hates when it comes to an anime, yet somehow captured the hearts thousands, from 4chan to tumblr and everywhere in between. It’s hard to imagine this not getting a second season of some kind, whether it’s a continuation of this season or an adaptation of the manga. 9/10

Kobayashi-san chi no Maid Dragon Top 3 of the season. A loving relationship between two adult women, albeit each loves the other in a different way (or do they?) A nurturing and caring relationship between an office worker and a young girl she adopts on sight. A family unit of two moms and a daughter that works. A dragon woman with giant boobs teasing a young boy that meant to summon a demon. Well, okay that last one isn’t exactly the squeaky-cleanest thing to happy this season, but the people who demonize this show because of it are missing out on an other wise great and potentially important series. I was surprised to find this was a KyoAni series; they tend to work in a very specific style, so the fact that this turned out looking anything like the manga is a miracle of it’s own, I think. Once I knew it was KyoAni though, I could see their thumbprints everywhere; the suddenly very poignant moment with great lighting and super appropriate music is something they’ve managed to perfect almost to a fault (to where it feels forced), but the couple examples in this show just added to the already cute moment that was happening. I am writing this the week before the finale, which features the dreaded anime killer Big Boobs Loli, but having read what comes after her initial appearance, I think that, should this get a second season, people will understand her character once the story moves forward (though the big boobs thing is kind of ridiculous, admittedly.) A wonderful, lovely, heart-warming supernatural comedy. 10/10 highest recommendation

KonoSuba S2 I may get some flak for this, but I felt there was a noticeable drop in quality between seasons. The writing was still good, and the performances as always were hilarious, but the animation seemed to have worsened quite a lot. I haven’t read any BTS for this series but it seemed like some of the more involved shots were rushed. Darkness continues to steal the show for me, even though I know Megumin is everyone’s waifu. I think it’s because I tend to always gravitate towards the girl in a show like this that has the least chance of ending up with the protagonist (Nisekoi, Toradora, Zero no Tsukaima, etc.) Not bad by any means, but I’m concerned for a season three should it happen. 8.5/10

Kuzu no Honkai Despicable trash. Soap opera level characters with midnight softcore love scenes between teenagers, some of which are borderline rape at best. Not even the legit lesbian love interest could keep me watching this show, that should tell you everything. Five episodes makes about 90ish minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Dropped, avoid 

Little Witch Academia This didn’t quite get the hype I thought it would, but it still seems most people that watch it are enjoying it immensely. However, I feel like it may be losing steam a bit, which is worrisome since it still has 12 episodes left to go through. It’s a bit frustrating to watch sometimes as someone who watched the first two movies/OVA, waiting for things like Ursula to be revealed as Chariot, and for Akko to get to a respectable level of magic use, things like that. I do enjoy the extra development that Lotte and Sucy have gotten, and I hope it extends to Diana, Amanda and some of the more prominent girls too. Continues!

Masamune-kun no Revenge The show had a bit of a twist on the usual formula, but by the fifth or sixth episode it was pretty clear it was the same old contrived tsundere harem romance series. When the guy seems to have some redeeming qualities, I can stomach a show like that for the sake of decent characters and performances, but this just ended up being a chore to watch. Even the debut of a late game older woman/love interest’s retainer wasn’t enough to save the show for me. I can’t see myself tuning in to a second season of this without some kind of huge plot twist like a female rival that the love interest is actually interested in (ha ha HAHAHAH) 5/10

Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu In my first impression of this show, I wondered if it would be as dumbed down as the previous season’s cycling anime whose name I’ve already forgotten. It is. It’s basically the same show but with more characters. Has a good, cute sensei, but also has generic foreign student trope character, which was insufferable because she was basically the same character as the foreigner in Akiba’s Trip. Dropped

Mori no Yousei: Kinoko no Musume The amateurish charm I thought I saw in the first episode of this show quickly dissolved into frustration. If it had been a high school clubs project, then I would have supported them whole heartedly, but this seems like a bad mobile game cash-in, and unfortunately it came out in a season that had a GREAT mobile game cash-in. Dropped

Nobunaga no Shinobi The first season ends, but the second season starts in like two weeks, so I’m tempted to not even include this, because it’s silly that it will be considered separate seasons. It’s a charming, and surprisingly bloody show about feudal Japan and for those that have studied the history of that time period, there are some great gags pertaining to certain figures not shown in the best of lights. 8/10

Nyanko Days Once again, this was just a cute fluff series that hopefully paves the way for Nukoduke. If you need a cuteness shot in the arm between heavy shows, this is a good choice. 8/10

One Room My hopes that they would keep the viewer genderless were dashed pretty quickly with a onsen episode early on, and then the sickening imouto arc in the middle. The final four episodes featuring the childhood friend chasing her dreams was the redeeming factor here, I would recommend just watching those episodes to be honest. 6/10

Onihei One of the better shows of the season. It has a different vibe to anything else on at the moment, probably because the source was originally published fifty years ago. There is very little that is lost in translation, and I think it plays well to the modern audience. There is a bit of a problem with character design, which @fucktsunderes pointed out to me, that because there’s more realism to it, some of the characters end up looking pretty similar. Actually, not just some, but a lot. To the point where I wasn’t sure if a character that died was a character that I liked or not until they showed up in a later episode. Other than that though, a great crime thriller action show. 9/10

Piace: Watashi no Italian After an incredible year of short form series in 2016, it’s an odd feeling to only have Piace as a stand out show this season. It was just the right about of silly and cute, while also being about food and food service. A highlight is the outro being sang by two different cast members each week, with the finale having everyone singing. 9/10

Pokemon Sun & Moon The most fun I’ve had watching pokemon since I was a kid, fantastic show. I am somehow even more in love with Japan’s Musashi than America’s Jesse. I am definitely on the Mao/Lillie ship. Also the only theme song this season that I listened to for every single episode, it is so awesome. Continues!

Sangatsu no Lion As I covered in my review for All Out, when a show has a game or sport in it, if it becomes too focused on that game or sport, I lose interest quicker than a hiccup. It’s a good show, but the shogi was just not the good part of the show for me. I enjoyed Rei’s interactions with his sister and the three Kawamoto girls the most of the whole season. It’s when the show felt the most alive and relatable to me. Not to mention Momo is just too darn cute. Shaft does cute very well, and also does cold depression very well, too. A spinoff with the Kawamotos as the star would be the ideal second season for me, but I will continue to watch just about anything Shaft decides to gift to us. 8/10

Seiren I should have dropped this show, but I didn’t for some reason. The middle arc was definitely the best, the epilogue was really cute too. Not really much to say about this series, it just kind of was there every week. One of those “each path of the romance vn is animated” shows, so your mileage may vary. 6/10

Spiritpact Yaoi bait adapted from a Chinese comic iirc. The main characters were both unbearable, and the way they treated the first significant female character in the show was gross, so I dropped this quicker than a hot rock. Dropped

Urara Meirochou Controversial opinion time: This show would have been better without Nono and Koume. They added nothing to the story that couldn’t have been done by either Kon or Chiya, and honestly the four girls thing is so over-done that I end up comparing it mentally to all the shows I’ve already seen before I even watch the first episode. The teacher and the... morals officer? Whatever Saku was stole the show, with some great late game performances from Kon’s mother. It was a cute show, and I’ll watch another season if it gets one, but I’d like it to be a bit more focused on the divining stuff going forward, or at least more focused on Kon and Chiya. 8/10

Youjo Senki Not really sure about this show. I spent the first half of the season mistakenly thinking it was glorying the third reich, but even after being corrected, I still didn’t really understand who I was meant to support or sympathize with. I end up rooting for Tanya a lot of the time because I understand a lot of the anti-theological sentiment she has, but I’m not sure that’s really the intent... Like in the last episode, we see the young daughter of the man who was killed by Tanya after encountering more than once enlisting in what is the equivalent of the American army. Rather than sympathy and compassion for what is obviously a scared young woman going for revenge, I felt pity, because I know far too many people in real life who FROG it up big time (that being ‘full relying on God’, btw) when any sort of hardship comes their way. I don’t really think I could watch a second season of this, it would have to be more than just ‘Tanya pushes back against Being X, BX recruits someone else, etc’, like, if Tanya went the whole season pushing back but never heard a peep out of BX, and started to wonder how much of it was just in her head, and began to doubt the things she remembered from her past life, that would be intriguing, but I don’t really see it heading that way. Also, not nearly enough Visha screen time for my taste. 7/10

[curestardust]

if you want: jaw-droppingly gorgeous visuals / slow moving story / (mainly) slice-of-life / emotional short stories

I’ve heard from others that this anime disappointed them, however the only thing I knew about Violet Evergarden before watching it was that it’s going to be beautiful visually. And holy hell, was it beautiful. If you can watch a show purely for it’s animation then here, KyoAni nailed it yet again. The story and the characters are another matter though. Having the main character “lack” emotions is risky as it makes it quite difficult for the viewer to connect with them. The majority of the anime is quite slow. In the beginning the focus is mainly on the struggles of “everyday people” and through their stories does Violet learn about emotions. Her character gets fleshed out properly around episodes 8 and 9. If you don’t like slice-of-life and background character focused episodes then getting through this anime can be quite a drag but the second half makes it kinda worth it? Either way, the stories and themes Violet Evergarden deals with are beautiful and tragic and if any of what I said above doesn’t turn you off then I’d highly recommend this one. [9/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: a detective story mixed with supernatural elements, very nice animation and fight scenes, intriguing setting

B: The Beginning suffers from an often encountered problem where it wants to be many things at once and ends up underperforming in all of them. Now don’t get me wrong; this IS a pretty good anime. The animation is consistently great, the fight choreographies, while a little all over the place, are fast placed, the bulk of the story is engaging and keeps you wanting more. However, as I wrote above, the show tries to blend a detective story with a supernatural one. And while this could work pretty well, unfortunately it goes downhill from after the first few episodes. You see, in the beginning (lol) the 2 seem to be completely linked together but as the story unfolds, the detective part and the supernatural one seemingly go in completely seperate directions with only very minor links holding the two together. This is the main problem of the anime; both sides have different characters, plots, stakes, story structure. HELL, even the colour pallette of the scenes are different between the two! This gives no time to develop the characters and give us their motivations and thus we don’t care about whether they die or live, we have many unanswered questions and plot holes, all of which are a HUGE problem in a story so focused on mystery. I could go on but mainly I’m just sad because B: The Beginning had a great premise but it just didn’t reach my expectations. Sigh... [6/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: long and intense fight scenes with great choreography / interesting side-characters / “badass female” characters

Ok, let’s start with the good. This is a fighting anime through and through. The fight choreographies are incredibly good and a “duel” can go on for multiple episodes and you won’t even notice it. This is of course if you’re interested in this genre, if not, this is not for you. Second, Airmaster passes the Bechdel test with flying colours. There are multiple female fighters introduced throughout the anime and they all have different relationships with our main female character (rival, idol, frienemy). The miraid of fighters also develop more or less fleshed out personalities making it easy to watch episodes that don’t star Maki (main). Honestly, I would’ve really enjoyed this Airmaster, as in a 10/10, if it weren’t for the problems often found in old anime (this one is 2003 to be exact). Homosexuality between men is constantly made fun of and considered disgusting. This, while I don’t like, was tolerable as the majority of the jabs center around 2 characters (one of whom is in love with the other) and they don’t show up together that often. There’s the fanservice, quite heavy in the first half but gets toned down and basically restricted to 1 female character who has BIG boobs. This honestly came across as if the creators realized midway through develoopment that just because an anime has a big female cast, they don’t have to be made into eyecandy. But ALL THAT and I’d have been ok. But no. There’s one character who is obsessed with our main character. And he tries to rape her. Twice. And it’s all played as a joke. I just...the scenes with that guy, the almost-rape scenes and playing it off as a joke even though they wrote Maki basically having PTSD towards the guy with her constant fear, anxiety and disgust whenever she thinks of him...B R U H. Anyway...this anime is good. Yes, I know what I said but it’s still good and it makes me sad that those scenes mentioned above take away from my enjoyment of it. If you’re used to this stuff from older anime or it just simply doesn’t bother you and you’re looking for a good fighting anime? Here. [7/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

[tl-notes]

Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon Episode 4 Notes

These yellow hats are tsuugakubou 通学帽, “commuting to school hats.” They are required by many elementary schools in Japan; students must wear them when traveling to and from school (which most children do by walking, at least part of the way; school buses aren't a thing) for various reasons. The most commonly cited is “to avoid traffic accidents” by making the children stand out, but others include preventing heatstroke, making them easier to spot for teachers, or differentiating which grade a student is in.

As the previous sentence implies, their design may change as you go up the grades (yellow for first graders, blue for older, as an example) or sometimes by gender. Depends on what the school wants to do with them.

Point cards are an absurdly popular way of encouraging repeat business in Japan, with lots of small business using non-electronic ones (marked by just a custom stamp). If you’re not careful your wallet will be overflowing with them in no time.

The “zuuun” sound she makes here is, as you could probably guess, the sound effect for this sort of emotional gloom or a sense of heaviness (physical or not).

Japanese has a huge wealth of these “sound effect” words, and they’re a pretty normal part of conversation—especially for kids, but also adults and to an extent even in formal situations. You’re surely familiar with “onomatopoeia” (also known as a phonomime), a word that sound like a sound; “buzz” being a common example. You may be less familiar with the words phenomime and psychomime; words that “sound” like actions/conditions of the physical world (something going “round and round and round…”) and words that “sound” like emotions/feelings/mental states (a “pounding” headache).

You’ll notice she says "kawaii" the first time, and "cute" the second. English is a required subject in most Japanese schools starting in late elementary school, so while people may not be able to actually speak it, they do know a bunch of random vocab words. And it's reflected in Japanese media: you can just drop in English like this and expect your audience to understand it. It's kind of a neat strength of writing in Japanese (and some other languages) that’s hard to reproduce in English, as there’s no standard second language everyone has to study—and not as much acceptance of randomly speaking other languages in the middle of a sentence anyway (somewhat ironically, given how many loan words English actually has).

She uses the verb 仰る ossharu here, which is a very formal/respectful form of “to say,” like how you would refer to something your boss or a client says. The impression it leaves in this case, at least for me, is like how a parent will sometimes sort of jokingly speak “humbly” toward their kid, like they’re a princess or something.

I think this is supposed to be “bud” not “bod,” but I’m not sure if it’s a mistake on Kyoani’s part or an intentional misspelling for realism, because that sort of mistake is a super common sight around Japan.

“Fancy” as a loan word in Japanese is not really associated with “expensive” the way it is in English, but is instead used to refer to cutesy decorative things. “Fancy Shop” is actually a word you can look up in (some) Japanese dictionaries, defined as “a store that specializes in selling ‘fancy’ ‘goods’.” (“Goods” being another common loan word, basically “merch” in English.) You can google image search “ファンシーショップ” (fanshii shoppu) and get a good feel for what it’s like.

Hello Kitty and that whole aesthetic is a decent example as well.

She uses another of those sound effect words here: chikachika. Basically the idea is a prickling sort of pain; it’s not just sparkling, it hurts to look at. It’s a relatively common gag line for an older person to say when looking at “sparklingly” youthful stuff, in that “I’m so old” sort of way.

That little face there is the henohenomoheji face—so named because it’s made out of the hiragana he (へ) for the eyebrows/mouth, no (の) for the eyes, mo (も) for the nose, and ji (じ) for the face’s outline and one ear. It’s a popular little doodle and you’ll see it on stuff like scarecrows or background characters in manga (when the author wants to lampshade the fact that they’re meaningless background characters).

|へへ |のの " |  も  / |  へ /

カンナ is Kanna in katakana, the set of kana used primarily for foreign words/names; all of the dragons’ names are written using it. It’s another way “foreigners”* are different from Japanese in Japan, whose names are written in kanji. Well, generally, anyway; some people give their kids (mostly girls) hiragana or, even more rarely, katakana first names, and often very young kids will write their names in kana anyway due to not having learned kanji yet.

*Mostly excluding people from countries that also use Chinese characters to write names, like say China—though even then you can usually tell "oh this is a Chinese name" from the choice of characters.

It’s actually a pain sometimes, as some forms and computer systems are designed with Japanese names in mind, which basically means you’ll never need more than like 4 characters each for first and last name. If you've got a longer name, it often won’t fit in those cases.

Did anybody miss this joke? 

The sign, as you might expect, basically says “Sweets Erasers” and “Warning: Do Not Eat”.

The sign here is pointing out that these are those “safety buzzers” mentioned earlier...which you probably noticed.

This is a play on a disclaimer(?) message that is/was common on certain Japanese TV shows: “この後スタッフが美味しく頂きました,” basically “the staff enjoyed eating it after this.” Japan suffered some pretty bad food shortages around the end of WW2 and, as cultures tend to do after experiencing that sort of thing, developed a strong norm against wasting food. Due to that, TV shows that wasted food on set felt the need to show that message, “after filming we ate this and were thankful about it; it wasn’t wasted,” to avoid blowback from angry viewers. It sort of occupies a similar spot in the culture that “no animals were harmed in the filming of this movie” does in the US. Both arise from a real effort to hold studios accountable, but are also often used as material for jokes.

The sign in the back specifies that this is masking tape, not ribbon, in case that’s what you thought it was.

“Backpacks” here is actually a very specific type of backpack, mostly unique to Japan; ランドセル randoseru, originally an old loan word from Dutch: ransel. This type of backpack is exclusively used by elementary school students—and indeed a large majority of elementary school students use them, as has been the tradition for several decades. Like a lot of Japanese school traditions it originally started as a military thing that seeped into the mainstream while Japan was feeling particularly imperialistic.

As you can see, they tend to be stupidly expensive for a backpack. The cost is somewhat deserved at least, as they are mostly handmade from quality materials and will easily endure the whole six years of a child’s elementary schooling. The hard shell that keeps the boxy shape helps keep the kids from breaking or crushing crap they put in it too, so that’s nice I guess.

They tend to have a strong nostalgic value as well, and people will often hold onto them as keepsakes (i.e. stuffed away in an attic or closet to be looked at once every twenty years or so, probably).

In addition to the above (which would not get me to pay that much, personally), many schools have traditionally required, and continue to require, that students use one. Some even mandate the color, though that’s not quite as common as it used to be and nowadays you can get them in a bunch of different colors instead of the traditional black or red*. Even in places where it’s not required, it’s not unheard of for people to use them anyway, again due to tradition and not wanting their kid to be the only one without (which would probably lead to both teasing of the kid by their classmates, and gossip about their parents by other parents).

*Red being a traditional color helps explain why Kobayashi reacted as she did there. In particular, black=boys & red=girls used to be a thing too.

It’s possible to get them for significantly cheaper in places (like online retailers), though those will generally be of lower quality (or at least less fancy materials; you’re probs not gonna find a leather one for 7,000 yen). Fancy designer ones can of course go for absurdly high prices, though that’s true of any product nowadays.

By the way, as you can see here, nigh on everybody carries a bag of some sort in Japan. Since you’re not likely to be using a car, it’s not like you’ve got anywhere else to put stuff you might need to have with you when out and about.

Japan is still largely cash-based when it comes to individual purchases, a fact which provides a little context to this bit. Outside of large chains, many places won’t take cards, and until fairly recently debit cards basically weren’t even a thing—they still haven’t really caught on, but at least you can get one from some of the large banks now.

School uniforms and certain other supplies are largely purchased through small local stores like this; if you’ve lived near a school you’re likely to have seen one. As Kobayashi’s line implied, they often have deals with a school so that you have to buy through them. It reminds me of how you have to buy gowns/hats/etc. for US school graduation ceremonies through a certain vendor the school (district?) has a deal with.

As you’re probably aware, this is a common and powerful sentiment in Japan, especially the more traditional areas. There have been cases of schools forcing children to dye their hair black even if it was naturally another color, which is clearly an example of taking it too far. On the other hand, there is an argument to made for fostering a sense of equality with your peers by having the whole class in the same uniform, with the same shoes, carrying the same bag, etc., so it’s not like it’s purely hard-headed attachment to tradition and conformity. I guess.

Kanna writes the na in her name with hiragana by mistake (な instead of ナ). ...Or so you’d think, but she was doing a good job writing kanji earlier, so I’m not sure if it’s an honest mistake or a calculated one to appear less infallible. Especially considering the fake tears we see later. Edit: As has been pointed out, the Ka is also wrong in the same way: か instead of カ. Not gonna lie, I sometimes make that mistake myself when writing them out by hand, since the primary difference is just whether there’s that corner dash and it’s easy to add it out of muscle memory—hiragana is a lot more common to write than katakana.

As mentioned before, handwriting is seen as very important in Japan—in particular, the specific method of how you’re supposed to write any one character (including letters/numbers). I bring this up again here because Kanna totally writes the 9 the “wrong” way.

Cram schools (塾 juku) are private “after-school-schools” that parents put their kids into to improve their chances of doing well on the all-important school entrance exams. They’re often seen as a pretty shitty experience for the kid (who wants to go to school twice in one day? or on days off?), but a necessary evil in order to make sure they can get into a good middle school, to get into a good high school, to get into a good college, to get a good job, to have a good life.

These rags, blue/pink clips, and rack are a common sight in many places in Japan; typically schools and offices where the students/employees do a basic cleaning of the classroom/office.

As you may have noticed in other anime set in schools, students tend to do a lot of the work of keeping the school clean. Part of that is (probably) to save on cleaning costs, but it’s also intended to foster a sense of community among the students and get them feeling invested in the school, as well as teach responsibility.

In many workplaces this tradition continues, to a greater or lesser extent. A white-collar worker might not be cleaning the office bathroom, but they will likely have a weekly (or biweekly, whatever) cleaning event where everybody gets a rag and cleans up any dust, coffee/tea rings, etc. around their desk for a few minutes, maybe do a little vacuuming. It’s as much a team-building exercise as it is a cost-saving technique (in theory).

Of course, it also helps establish that it’s now at the end of the school day.

This is that phrase the dude in episode two was repeating: maji yabakune マジやばくね. The maji is just an emphasis thing, very similar to “really” in English (both like “that’s really weird” or “wow, really?”). “Seriously” works too, especially considering that maji is short for majime 真面目, which is a less slangy word that basically means serious (it’s more than just that but whatever). Depending on use, it may be closer to “rly” or “srsly” instead (interneeeet).

The second word is yabai (or more specifically the negated version of it*, yabakunai, or even more specifically the slangy/slurred way of saying that, yabakune). Yabai is a slang word that’s exploded in popularity over the last several years (though it’s roots are much older). It used to mostly describe a situation that is/had gone bad, similar to something like “oh shit.” Much like “shit” though, it’s become almost a catch-all word you can use to refer to basically anything. “This is shit.” “This is the shit.” “This is my shit.” Another example you’ll hear is using it to refer to people, like “that guy’s yabai,” which can mean anything from “don’t fall in with that dude he dangerous” to “that guy’s nuts” to “damn look at that dude go, fuckin beast mode.”

It’s not quite as vulgar though, so it’s not necessarily a bad word for kids to say.

*An extremely common grammar construction in Japanese is negating something and sticking a question mark after it to make a phrase similar to “Is that not ___?” in English. That’s what’s going on with “yabakune.”

So here, it’s Kanna processing the conflicting statements Saikawa made and being like a combination of “she nuts” and “danger Kanna Kamui, danger” (in a silly sort of way).

The line here technically isn’t want to be friends (友達になりたい tomodachi ni naritai or similar), but want to get along well (仲良くしたい nakayokushitai). It’s a pretty insignificant difference, but it makes slightly more sense in context for her to be saying it that way (at least in the Japanese, where both sound natural).

“Blundering” here is bukiyou 不器用, which is a common adjective for someone who’s clumsy (especially in a “bad with their hands” kind of way) or bad at expressing their emotions. If you’re familiar with the stereotypical gruff Japanese dad who can’t make himself tell his kids he loves them (unless maybe at end of an emotional story arc) archetype, this is the word typically used to describe them.

So basically the nuance here is that they’re all “you should have just said you wanted to be friends with her from the start, why’d you have to be all combative?” Which is probably something they think about her a lot.

For the curious, the words here are kurasu 暮らす and ikiru 生きる. The former is a verb for the act of “living” in a “what you do in your day to day life to get by” type of way; what house you live in, what food you eat, your routine, etc. The latter is “living” in a more philosophical sort of way, like “how you choose to live your life.” Or biologically I guess, like being alive versus being dead.

The way she words this, to me, implies less “for now, I can” and more “now, I can.” Like she couldn’t understand it before, but now she can.

Maybe a better way to put it is that the translation here seems to deal with the “now" and the “future” (she agrees now, but may not in the future) whereas the Japanese phrase used (ima de wa 今では) deals more with the “past” and the “now” (she didn't agree with it, but now she does).

Also for what it’s worth, in the manga there’s one extra line after that: “Kobayashi-san is just that... [trails off]”

Also going back a bit, this line. The phrase "骨をうずめる hone wo uzumeru" doesn’t really mean to destroy oneself. Literally, it means to bury one’s bones, and idiomatically, it means to “devote yourself wholly to something.” It is (or maybe was, when lifetime employment was still big) commonly used like “I will bury my bones at this company,” meaning you were devoted to your work at that employer (and had no plans to consider leaving for another job in the future).

So the idea here is that she had seen many of her fellow dragons who started with just “I’ll just spend time/get along with this non-dragon” and ended up becoming completely devoted to them instead (romantically or otherwise), but had never been able to accept/understand that feeling/decision—until now.

Also worth noting the "共に tomo ni" (together with) that she used with the bone-burying phrase—the same word she used twice earlier when talking about living with humans (tomo ni kurasu and, tomo ni ikiru).

So depending on how you want to interpret it, idiomatically or literally, the dragons she knew got "too" involved with a non-dragon and then either just became super emotionally attached, or died together with them.

This line is actually "いつの不良だ？ itsu no furyou da?". Furyou is one of the words you’ll see as "delinquent" a lot, and itsu is "when." Basically the way they’re acting makes them seem like stereotypical delinquents from year 19XX, and she’s sort of reacting to both how out of date it is, plus the "delinquent" thing itself. If you were writing a similar scene from scratch in English, you might go with a “____ called, it wants its ____ back” style joke.

She’s saying “moe” here, in case you didn’t catch that. That sort of “moeeeee” squeal is pretty stereotypical (if sort of out of date) as a thing Japanese anime otaku would say when looking at something cute. When I say stereotypical, I mean that was kind of the perception even relatively normal people had about what otaku did, “oh those people who go like ‘moeeeee’ at anime, right?”

Get it he’s fat (American) and big (gorilla). Gorilla is a pretty standard jokey way to make fun of someone big and stocky. You’ve probably heard it used in several other anime/manga before (often PE teachers or judo club members, especially with square jaws like that).

The phrase here is kubi wo aratte mattero yo 首を洗ってまってろよ, the ever-popular “wash your neck and wait.” It refers to an old line from back in the samurai days, when it was a thing to wash your neck prior to committing seppuku—after you gut yourself, someone else is supposed to cut your head off, and it would be just dreadful for someone to have to cut a dirty neck, heavens me. Basically the idea is “yer fuckin dead mate.”

This is an example of a sutezerifu 捨て台詞, basically a parting line made by an aggrieved party, like “I’ll get you for this!” or whatever. In fiction it’s heavily associated with the bad guys. If you think of Team Rocket they’re a perfect example.

The phrase for picking a fight in Japanese is “selling a fight” (and “fighting words” can be “selling words (urikotoba 売り言葉)”, as here). Then if someone takes you up on it, they “bought” the fight.

Specifically she has no jinbou 人望, which is basically popularity, but in a “people would go out of their way to help you” sort of way; it’s not the same word you’d use to refer to a popular movie, for instance, or someone who’s “popular” but doesn’t have many friends (that would be ninki 人気).

“Explosive” here is actually the kanji for explode/explosion and heart, so it’s more like “Exploding Heart/Spirit.” It’s actually also the word for ground zero/the center of an explosion, though usually it has another kanji added to the end when used like that (爆心地 bakushinchi).

The ability to just toss whatever kanji together like this to create words that don’t necessarily have an actual meaning, but invoke a sort of emotional response, means you see this thing in titles and taglines and fiction (think attack names) a lot.

The phrase used to say “on a different level” here is ものが違う mono ga chigau. Chigau is different, and mono can mean many things, including “things,” and also including a euphemism for boobs.

She uses juurin 蹂躙 here, a fancy word for basically trample. It’s not a super common word, but it’s often used when talking about things like “trampled human rights” in news stories.

Another sutezerifu, and a particularly stereotypical one. Kobayashi doesn’t say “he’s beat up,” she comments on how absurdly stereotypical he sounds (こってこてだな).

Lucoa uses the first person pronoun “boku,” which is typically used by boys/men. Japanese has a bunch of words for “I/me,” and most of them are gendered to some extent or another; some common ones are ore 俺 and boku 僕 for men, atashi あたし and watashi 私 for women—though watashi (or watakushi) is used by everyone in formal/business environments.

Interestingly, the Japanese language is very gendered based on the speaker, but not so gendered based on the subject. So like in English it can be hard to tell someone’s gender online sometimes, but at the same time it’s useful information to know for pronoun purposes. In Japanese it’s easy to tell someone’s gender online (unless they specifically write to hide it), but at the same time you don’t even really need to know, for pronoun purposes anyway.

The phrase here is 姥捨て ubasute, an ancient (and possibly mostly mythical?) practice of abandoning elderly people (particularly but not exclusively women) in the mountains or elsewhere in the wilderness to die in times when food was scarce and the extra mouth couldn’t be fed.

You have to remove your normal shoes and change into indoor shoes (like slip-ons), when entering schools in Japan. In middle/high school you’ll typically have a shoe locker to keep those in, but in elementary school you often are required to have a bag to keep them in; hence the “slipper case” here.

Basically the same is true of physical education/gym clothes, hence the “gym clothes case.” The “gym cap” is basically the same deal as the commuting hat, but worn during gym/PE class. They’re often red and white (also reversible), and so sometimes referred to as kouhakubou 紅白帽 (red/white hats; “kouhaku” is a common word, as the red/white color pair has a lot of cultural significance, especially in relation to Shinto).

Bathrooms in Japan don’t have paper towels, so a handkerchief is an important item to carry when leaving the house.

The “pencil board” (下敷き shitajiki) is a thin plastic board placed under paper to provide a better writing surface (such as when writing in a notebook, which would otherwise have more “give” to it). Possibly due to the relatively intricate nature of kanji (look at this shit: 憂鬱), clean handwriting gets a lot of focus in Japanese primary education—calligraphy lessons, with brush and ink and all, are a regular feature of class—which I guess is where the mandatory status of these boards comes from.

The safety buzzer (“crime prevention buzzer”) is a common piece of equipment for kids to carry, so they can ring in case of kidnapping or similar crime; basically the “I need an adult” alarm. Since kids are generally walking to school unattended and there have been a few high profile criminal cases related to that, it makes sense schools would want to make sure these are something students are carrying.

Link to Episode One Notes Link to Episode Two Notes Link to Episode Three Notes Link to Character Intro Pages

[recentanimenews]

ESSAY: The Magic of Kyoto Animation's Cosplay Love Affair

This article is part of Crunchyroll News' KyoAni Month celebration. Check out the rest of our KyoAni features HERE.

  Ever since the premiere of the mega-hit The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in 2006, Kyoto Animation (affectionately called KyoAni) has had a special place in the hearts of anime’s most die-hard fans. For as eclectic as KyoAni’s catalog may be, long-time fans of the studio return time and time again for that special KyoAni touch — meticulous attention to detail and great animation. But besides a clearly apparent passion for their projects, what else could be so attractive to the shared universal magic of KyoAni shows? One word: Cosplay.

  Screw the Rules, It Has Frills!

  A shortening of the term “costume play,” cosplay most commonly refers to dressing up as a specific character. In a more generalized sense, it can also just mean wearing an outfit you wouldn’t normally associate with day-to-day life (such as a french maid dress or even a different school uniform). A healthy handful of KyoAni shows have displayed an especially powerful affection toward cosplay: Haruhi herself famously dons a bunny girl outfit during a school concert, Konata from Lucky Star works part-time at a cosplay cafe (as Haruhi), K-ON’s Hokage Tea Team is supported by their cosplay-obsessed advisor Sawako, and Tohru of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is inspired by the magnificent power of Akihabara maids and Kobayashi’s own otaku tendencies.

  Music teacher Sawako suggests cosplay to Hokage Tea Time for the school festival concert

  Unlike literal magic or time-travel, cosplay is a less dramatic form of reality-bending. But what in the world does that kind of reality-bending mean?

  Consider your average high school ecosystem — pretty plain on the outside, (mostly) normal on the inside. Previously mentioned shows like Haruhi, Lucky Star, and K-ON! feature characters with uniforms. Even if those uniforms are cute, they’re still a symbol of conformity. Nothing is particularly anarchist about a sailor fuku. And yet, characters like Haruhi, Konata, and even Yui stick out for their quirks. For Haruhi, it’s all about aliens, finding a bigger truth out there. Konata, her otaku love for anime and games. Yui? Classic goofiness. If they aren’t hopelessly easy-going, these uniform-clad girls certainly aren’t boring wallflowers, either. If something truly world-changing is just around the corner, it's usually not very obvious on the surface. What can possibly be done to truly show the world these aren't just your average teens?

  Cat Ears of Her Own

  Enter the world of cosplay, bunny ears, maid dresses, and having any reason possible to break dress-code. The power of KyoAni’s love for cosplay isn’t purely for the sake of cuteness, or fanservice — but rather demonstrating that anyone (even you!) can access your wildest fantasies. Maybe even a little power trip or dumb laugh, as a treat. To bend reality, you gotta bend expectations first. This is the life-changing magic of cosplay: making even the most mundane scenario unique all with a simple wardrobe change.

  It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.

  Of course, the otaku appeal of cosplay is obvious. Cosplay itself is practically synonymous with conventions, fandom, and the desire to bring a beloved character to life. Tohru, especially, is introduced to the zeal of maid fandom through a trial by fire via Kobayashi’s training. No one in Hokage Tea Time dares don cat ears until their crazed advisor Sawako mysteriously materializes them. These cat ears practically snatch their newest recruit, Azusa, into band practice with their cute charm. Characters like Konata offer themselves as a strategically placed audience “everyman,” a nerd just like you! But again, Konata isn’t simply doing cosplay for the sake of cosplay — she applies that otaku dedication to saving enough to buy merchandise to justify a cosplay job. The intent to cosplay isn’t so much about fanservice as it is to convey a certain genre savviness of the cast. If anything, these characters might as well be our peers.

  Konata cosplaying as Haruhi at a cafe, offering her sage otaku wisdom

  Of course, Konata famously cosplays as Haruhi in her signature school uniform. In Lucky Star’s first episode, Konata discusses the mixed feelings she has about characters having different voice actors in drama CDs versus broadcast anime adaptations. In another episode, Konata tunes in late at night to watch the latest Haruhi episode, only to find viewers criticizing it minutes later online. These jokes are reminders that Aya Hirano voices both Haruhi and Konata, effectively breaking the fourth-wall by riffing on popular otaku culture. Konata is an opinionated otaku with strong feelings about voice actors — while also regularly cosplaying as a character obsessed with science fiction. In these cases, cosplay isn’t just a funny wink and nudge, but builds up situational irony, a pointed acknowledgment that KyoAni fans love KyoAni in every way imaginable.

  No Cosplay, No Life

  Classical cosplay tropes, like maid dresses, catgirls, and school uniforms, are built into the narrative of many KyoAni shows. Azusa, for example, is offered cat ears as part of her induction to Hokage Team Time and is dared to "nya" by her swooning seniors. Haruhi and friends famously sing their performance of “God Knows” in full cosplay, with Haruhi herself dressed as a bunnygirl, Mikuru as a maid, and Nagato as a witch. This scene, in particular, is partially animated with rotoscope technique, fully capturing life-like instrument playing gestures in homage to the 2005 high school band film Linda Linda Linda. While the film’s climatic culture festival concert is performed by schoolgirls in their uniforms, KyoAni ups the ante by adding cosplay to the mix. The juxtaposition of realistic singing and instrument playing accompanied by the fantastical outfits arguably isn't unintentional — reality and imagination seem to mesh together, creating its own bold and explosive swansong. Without this attention to detail, this iconic sequence would've likely lost some of its high-energy bite.

  Haruhi performs "God Knows" in full bunnygirl attire for optimal musical output

  In get-up that would get more traditional students expelled, Haruhi and companions step into the fantasy world she’s been so desperately pursuing. Even if just for a moment, they have it all. Said episode even begins on a parody, low-budget alien-maid-girl home video of Mikuru cosplaying as a bunnygirl. This passion for temporarily breaking reality is seen once again in K-ON’s own culture festival concert episode, where the viewer is presented with a faux-music video of the band escaping police pursuit in the desert. While these scenes would of course be great sans the cosplay, the colorful visual language of these eye-catching outfits makes these moments all the more climatic.

   A cosplay-fueled fury burns inside maid-loving Kobayashi

  Besides being a quick and easy way to cuteness, KyoAni’s long-lasting love affair with cosplay is inseparable from the due diligence each of their adaptations are given. Rather than simply present a character in an unusual outfit, we’re given a dramatic, sometimes even otherworldly presentation tying it back to story. Whether that be in the school auditorium, or as a fire-breathing maid. KyoAni’s desire to do right to the source material is evident in their talent for treating cosplay as a uniquely powerful storytelling device. A costume change might not change the world, but if done just right, it can absolutely make anyone's dreams feel possible.

  Is your favorite Kyoto Animation character an almighty cat-eared, reality-warping telepathic alien maid bunnygirl high school rockstar from the future? Let us know!

    Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. He would like to try eating Tohru's tail. His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

    By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Week in Anime (Week of 1/23/16)

Hello and welcome to another edition of TWiA! Another week passes, and that means another batch of episodes to rant talk about! So let’s begin with those rankings, all up to date!

Rankings:

1 (0). Demi-chan wa Kataritai (9/10) [3/?]

2 (0). Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2 (great/10) [2/10]

3 (0). Gabriel DropOut (great/10) [2/12]

4 (0). Kuzu no Honkai (good/10) [2/?]

5 (+2). Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon (decent/10) [2/?]

6 (-1). Nobunaga no Shinobi (7/10) [16/?]

7 (+1). Little Witch Academia (TV) (6/10) [2-3/25]

8 (+1). Rewrite: Moon and Terra (decent/10) [2/?]

9 (+1). Sengoku Choujuu Giga: Otsu (meh/10) [2/13]

10 (-4). Masamune-kun no Revenge (meh/10) [3/?]

11 (0). Nyanbo (4/10) [16/26]

Awards:

Best “Is It Me Or Is It The Others Who Are Wrong” Award: Little Witch Academia

This show was hyped up to the max on /r/anime, to the point where there were daily posts with the number of days until the first episode would air. I didn’t really buy into the hype after watching the original OVA and leaving it feeling a bit underwhelmed. And after two episodes, I knew what I was getting myself into: it’s not anything amazing, but it’s not horrible either. It’s right in that middle ground of enjoyment, enough for me to continue with it even though it’s two cour. Yet there’s still a thought inside of me, wondering why I’m not enjoying it as much as other people seem to be. And after much thought, there’s two reasons that people are loving this show that I narrowed down: the great animation and the Disney-like story. Those two things are pretty much the reason for my lack of enjoyment for this series.

Good animation is nice, but it’s not anything that’s going to significantly raise the score of a show for me. And as for the second point, the show is Disney-like in the sense that it portrays the message of “if you believe, you’ll surely accomplish it”. It was prominent with the OVA, and so far with the first two episodes it’s been a thing as well. Unfortunately, I’m not really about the whole “with the power of believing/friendship/whatever we can surely win/accomplish this task/etc.”: it’s the main reason why I generally don’t watch shounens/sports shows, and it’s the reason why I don’t particularly like some CGDCTs with that message as well, such as Yuru Yuri sometimes or what GochiUsa’s second season is starting to look like from the episodes I’ve watched.

What it really boils down to is basically “it’s not for me”. It’s basically the same situation with Flying Witch: I’m not saying the show is bad or that I hate the show. In fact, I appreciate what Flying Witch contributed towards the iyashikei genre (healing show in a sense), and I appreciate the whole backstory with LWA and how it got Kickstarted. But in the end, I rate based on how I enjoyed a show, and for me at this point, LWA hasn’t been amazing, but is still okay. We’ll see how it progresses later because things can change dramatically, but so far this is how I feel about it.

Best “Random Action Scene” Award: Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

Sasuga KyoAni. In a comedy/slice-of-life show, we get a pretty dang good action scene featuring the two dragons that have been introduced so far. I’m not watching very many action shows this season, so I’m not going to so far as to say that this scene was the best action scene of the young season. Instead I’ll just say that this scene is a good example of the versatility of this show. We got the laughs for sure, but it can go farther than that as there were actually some nice heartwarming moments as well with the kid dragon’s exile scene. I’m curious to see how the other characters will fit into the dynamic of the show, based on what I saw from the OP/ED sequences. We’ll see I guess.

Most Fucked Up Shit Award: Kuzu no Honkai

(Honestly it isn’t that bad, but compared to the rest of the shows I’m watching, this is like some horror stuff)

I try to keep myself from swearing in these posts because I’m trying to limit my cuss word usage, but no euphemism is accurately going to describe this award. Straight up, this is some fucked up shit. On the one hand, this show has been a really interesting take on romance in a genre which usually is filled with annoying tropes and disappointing nothings. On the other hand, the relationships themselves are really really messed up. You have both Hanabi and Mugi pretending that the other person is their actual love during the more intimate scenes, you have the main relationship itself which I’m sure is going to end up self-destructing at some point during the season, and now you introduce more characters into the love polygon, with no expenses towards the gender of the person. It’s messy, but really fun to watch. I don’t know if that makes me a bad person, but I already knew that from the start anyway so I’m ready for the rest of this messed up ride.

Most Oregairu-like Show: Masamune-kun no Revenge

I’m seeing some similarities with this show and Oregairu, specifically in the characters. The most obvious one is Yukino and Aki: both ice queens with long black-ish hair. Then there’s the less obvious Yui and Futaba, both sort of the cheerful genki-type characters (with similar figures...). And then there’s the traps.

But really, that’s it for the similarities. And even then, these similarities aren’t really that good when you look deeper. Let’s start with the traps. Well, first let me start off by saying I don’t like traps. They usually have absolutely no point other than “oh look it’s a trap character”. That’s the case for Re:Zero and that’s the case for Masamune-kun: basically they just added the trap because they could, although they could have put a non-trap character and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Yet with Oregairu, Totsuka (the trap) actually has a purpose, and it’s the reason why I actually like him unlike the other traps out there. He basically acts as the main source of comedic moments with 8man, and him being a trap is essential to those comedic moments. In that way, him being a trap served a purpose, and so I was fine with it.

Going further, the comparison between Yui and Futaba is ruined by the fact that Yui is a main character in her show while Futaba isn’t, meaning we get a rejection in the second episode and her time on screen very much cut down. Unfortunate because I liked her the most out of all of the characters so far. And then there’s Aki and Yukino, both characters of an archetype I don’t really like: the tsundere. It’s obviously too early to tell, but from the first three episodes Aki just seems like a worse version of Yukino: she flip-flops too much between tsun and dere mode, which I think is more frustrating than just sticking with the tsun and slowly moving towards the dere like Yukino does.

So overall, Masamune-kun so far has been hit-and-miss so far. It’s had its moments and misses, but overall it’s a decent to average show. Time will tell as to how this continues, but with how it’s progressing, I’m honestly not too excited to see. Oh well, I’m in this ride for now.

The “Landfill Info Dump” Show Award: Rewrite (Moon and Terra)

First off, I have to say that this season of Rewrite so far has been much better than the first season. Unfortunately, that also leads us to this award, which was sort of a given with how unorganized the first season was. Because of the amount of stuff they glossed over, they now have to explain all of the stuff they missed, leading to a lot of information being dumped to the viewer. Now I’m not sure if this is because I’ve already read the VN or something else, but the info dump made the episodes go so slowly, and just made the show boring to watch. That might also just be the slow pacing of the show though, so I can’t really tell if it’s the same for an anime-only viewer. Well, hopefully this continues to be a decent adaptation.

The “Nisekoi” Award: Demi-chan wa Kataritai

Now before I get into my spiel, let me say that this show is some really good stuff. It’s so good that I already bought volume 1 of the manga, which tells you something given that I almost never get manga. Having said that, this episode revealed some things that I didn’t really like, namely the harem-y feels I’m getting (hence the Nisekoi award). From Machi’s crush on the sensei to Sato-sensei’s crush on the sensei to Hikari’s ambiguous crush on the sensei, I’m a bit wary. I have been told that nothing actually happens romantically, so I am optimistic that it’s just me being super pessimistic. Still, it’s something that’s been bothering me with this show, and is really the only complaint I have for it. But really, it’s a minor minor issue compared to the great things this show is doing. Still the best anime of the season so far.

The “Red Flags Dropped Show of the Week” Award: Fuuka

This last episode was the breaking point. Well actually, every episode was the breaking point, but this episode just pushed it over the edge. Firstly, why is the MC such a basic biatch? Secondly, how the heck did he end up in the position he was when he fell on Fuuka? Thirdly, how did I end up watching four episodes of this? For the time I was watching this, I think I had to pause at least five times per episode because I had to recollect myself and prevent myself from facedesking too hard. There were so many stupid decisions and turns that were made during this show, and watching it was probably bad for my health. It’s not even worth it anymore for “that point”, and so I say no more.

Best Episode of the Week Award: KonoSuba S2

Okay, this episode was significantly better in the face department. No noticeable derp, and the derp that was there was purposeful and added to the humor. And speaking of that, this episode was even better than the first episode, making me laugh more than any show from last season combined. It’s stupid, yes, but it uses its stupidity in a humorous way, parodying cliches and such to turn scenes in unexpected directions. I’m interested to see if the bad derp and good derp alternate, because apparently the animation directors for episodes alternate between odd and even numbered episodes. Would be interesting if that was the case. Still, this show was the best comedy last year, and it’s making a strong case for this year as well.

And that’s all for this week: thanks for reading! Random side note: there’s a certain show on my radar that’s been recommended to me, so I’ll give that a shot and see if it’s worth watching. If you know of Youjo Senki, well that’s it. We’ll see if it’s any good considering the genre isn’t really my thing.

So until next time, I’ll see you in the next post!